Billionaire Jim Simons and Insiders Are Bullish On PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) and More

The fund had also been buying Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM) during the first quarter of 2013, and reported a position of 2.4 million shares. The premium grocery store- which has been bucking a slow industry with double-digit growth rates in revenue and net income in its most recent quarter compared to the same period in its previous fiscal year- has also seen insider buying in the last few months. Still, an excited market has already priced high growth over the next several years into the stock; analyst consensus for the forward fiscal year implies a P/E multiple of 30.

An insider at $10 billion market cap oil and gas refining and marketing company HollyFrontier Corp (NYSE:HFC) was buying in late March at prices a bit over $51 per share; Renaissance increased its stake by 69% during Q1 to a total of just under 3 million shares. Refining and marketing companies generally look cheap in quantitative terms, and Hollyfrontier is no exception at 9 times forward earnings estimates. Analysts do look to be expecting a decline in the company’s earnings, however, so we’d need to do more research before considering it as a value stock.

Mead Johnson Nutrition CO (NYSE:MJN), a provider of infant formula and children’s nutrition products, rounds out our list of stocks seeing insider buying which Renaissance owned at the beginning of April- specifically, the fund disclosed ownership of 1.9 million shares. Mead Johnson is another growth play, with trailing and forward P/Es of 28 and 23 respectively; while recent results have actually been fairly mediocre, there have been some rumors that China- a critical market for the company- will relax its one-child policy, therefore increasing long-term demand.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.