{
  "id": 1739983,
  "title": "Forget AI Stocks: Value Investing Giant Seth Klarman Is Loading Up on Genuine Parts (GPC)",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/18/forget-ai-stocks-value-investing-giant-seth-klarman-is-loading-up-on",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-18T15:17:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Finance",
    "slug": "yahoo-finance",
    "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/forget-ai-stocks-value-investing-151706840.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "While investors focus on artificial intelligence stocks, value investor Seth Klarman is reportedly allocating significant resources to Genuine Parts Company (GPC), a value investing giant. Baupost Group, Klarman's investment firm, increased its GPC holdings by 89% in the second quarter, reaching 2.82 million shares valued at approximately $332.3 million.\n\nGenuine Parts announced earlier this year plans to separate its Global Automotive and Global Industrial businesses to enhance focus and shareholder value. Proponents argue that these two entities could potentially be more valuable as separate companies than as a single corporation. The Industrial division, which encompasses Motion, appears to be the stronger performer. In the second quarter, Industrial sales grew 7% year over year, while EBITDA surged nearly 10% to $316 million, with EBITDA margin expanding by 30 basis points to 13.1%. Core maintenance, repair, and operations sales climbed about 7%, while project-based sales rose approximately 9%. Growth was also observed in 11 of the 14 industrial end markets.\n\nThe separation of Global Industrial as a standalone company could prove particularly intriguing, as investors would be able to evaluate the business independently from Genuine Parts' automotive operations. The Automotive segment features the NAPA automotive-parts business and a vast distribution and independent-store network. In the second quarter, North American Automotive sales increased by 4%, and comparable sales rose by 2.6%. Management is actively working to optimize the economics of its independent-store network through improvements in sales, pricing, inventory, operations, and technology. GPC boasts a strong market position, with 70 consecutive years of dividend increases under its belt. The company's core brands include NAPA, Repco, and UAP.\n\nThe primary risk lies in the potential failure of GPC's planned separation to deliver the expected value, as the company would lose some of the economies of scale and shared corporate infrastructure resulting from the combined Automotive and Industrial operations. Both businesses would also have to contend with higher standalone costs. Although the authors acknowledge this risk, they remain convinced that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns within a shorter time frame. If you are searching for an AI stock with more promise, the report highlights a cheap AI stock with 10,000% upside potential.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}