What Makes W.W. Grainger (GWW) an Investment Bet?

Parnassus Investments, an investment management company, released the “Parnassus Core Equity Fund” third-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The S&P 500 Index surged in the third quarter, driven by investor optimism that grew on expectations of monetary easing, strong consumer demand, and solid corporate earnings. The Fund (Investor Shares) returned 2.57% (net of fees) in the quarter, trailing the S&P 500 Index’s 8.12% return. YTD, the fund returned 9.89% compared to 14.83% for the index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, Parnassus Core Equity Fund highlighted stocks such as W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) distributes maintenance, repair, and operating products and services. The one-month return of W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) was 9.89%, and its shares lost 5.14% of their value over the last 52 weeks.  On December 22, 2025, W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) stock closed at $1,034.87 per share, with a market capitalization of $49.21 billion.

Parnassus Core Equity Fund stated the following regarding W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:

"We also trimmed IT holdings Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom, where valuations have trended higher, and reallocated assets to a new position in Industrials sector holding W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW), a distributor of maintenance, repair and operating supplies. Grainger’s economies of scale, network effects, large SKU breadth and e commerce platform enable same-day service and strong customer loyalty. Run by a management team with a proven track record of outperforming industry peers, Grainger is well positioned to benefit from trends like digitization, nearshoring and aging U.S. manufacturing assets."

W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 46 hedge fund portfolios held W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) at the end of the third quarter, compared to 55 in the previous quarter. W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) reported sales of $4.7 billion in Q3 2025, up 6.1% on a reported basis or 5.4% on a daily constant currency basis. While we acknowledge the potential of W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

In another article, we covered W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) and shared the list of best dividend aristocrat stocks to invest in. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.