Coventry Health Care, Inc. (NYSE:CVH): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Coventry Health Care, Inc. (NYSE:CVH) has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment of late.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are many methods investors can use to monitor the equity markets. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Coventry Health Care, Inc.

Just as integral, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of incentives for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action encompassing Coventry Health Care, Inc. (NYSE:CVH).

How are hedge funds trading Coventry Health Care, Inc. (NYSE:CVH)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 26 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -4% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Alpine Associates, managed by Robert Emil Zoellner, holds the biggest position in Coventry Health Care, Inc. (NYSE:CVH). Alpine Associates has a $206 million billion position in the stock, comprising 8.5% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Pentwater Capital Management, managed by Matthew Halbower, which held a $162 million position; 0.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management.

Since Coventry Health Care, Inc. (NYSE:CVH) has experienced declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there is a sect of fund managers who were dropping their full holdings at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Richard Schimel’s Diamondback Capital said goodbye to the biggest investment of all the hedgies we track, comprising about $26 million in stock.. Anand Parekh’s fund, Alyeska Investment Group, also dropped its stock, about $21 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds at the end of the year.

Insider trading activity in Coventry Health Care, Inc. (NYSE:CVH)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, Coventry Health Care, Inc. (NYSE:CVH) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s strategies, everyday investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Coventry Health Care, Inc. (NYSE:CVH) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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