The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 887 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of December 31st. In this article we look at what those investors think of Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC).
Is GPC stock a buy? The best stock pickers were becoming more confident. The number of bullish hedge fund positions rose by 2 in recent months. Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC) was in 25 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistic is 29. Our calculations also showed that GPC isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).
Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 124 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here).
Ryan Tolkin, CIO of Schonfeld Strategic Advisors
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, the CBD market is growing at a 33% annualized rate, so we are taking a closer look at this under-the-radar hemp stock. We go through lists like the 10 best biotech stocks under $10 to identify the next stock with 10x upside potential. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. Now let’s take a glance at the new hedge fund action surrounding Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC).
Do Hedge Funds Think GPC Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At Q4’s end, a total of 25 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 9% from the third quarter of 2020. On the other hand, there were a total of 21 hedge funds with a bullish position in GPC a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC) was held by GAMCO Investors, which reported holding $81.1 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by AQR Capital Management with a $33.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included D E Shaw, GLG Partners, and Millennium Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position GAMCO Investors allocated the biggest weight to Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC), around 0.76% of its 13F portfolio. Gotham Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.24 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GPC.
As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Laurion Capital Management, managed by Benjamin A. Smith, created the most outsized position in Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC). Laurion Capital Management had $1.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager also made a $1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new GPC investors: Ryan Tolkin (CIO)’s Schonfeld Strategic Advisors and Qing Li’s Sciencast Management.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC). We will take a look at Mid America Apartment Communities Inc (NYSE:MAA), Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN), Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY), J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT), CureVac N.V. (NASDAQ:CVAC), Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS), and Gartner Inc (NYSE:IT). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to GPC’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| MAA | 26 | 338357 | -1 |
| ELAN | 43 | 1493327 | 22 |
| TDY | 28 | 372237 | -3 |
| JBHT | 26 | 330836 | -12 |
| CVAC | 9 | 23140 | 0 |
| MAS | 40 | 712440 | -6 |
| IT | 37 | 1939657 | -1 |
| Average | 29.9 | 744285 | -0.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 29.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $744 million. That figure was $195 million in GPC’s case. Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand CureVac N.V. (NASDAQ:CVAC) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for GPC is 56.4. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 12.3% in 2021 through April 19th and still beat the market by 0.9 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on GPC as the stock returned 19.8% since the end of the fourth quarter (through 4/19) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
