To many of your fellow readers, hedge funds are perceived as useless, outdated investment vehicles of a period lost to current times. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open today, this site focuses on the aristocrats of this group, around 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by watching their highest quality stock picks, we’ve determined a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (see all of our picks from August).
Just as useful, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the financial markets. Obviously, there are plenty of reasons for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, it’s important to examine the latest info surrounding Berry Plastics Group Inc (NYSE:BERY).
How are hedge funds trading Berry Plastics Group Inc (NYSE:BERY)?
Heading into Q3, a total of 23 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 130% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.
Consequently, particular hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Select Equity Group, managed by Robert Joseph Caruso, created the biggest position in Berry Plastics Group Inc (NYSE:BERY). Select Equity Group had 107.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jeffrey Tannenbaum’s Fir Tree also initiated a $57.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BERY positions are Joshua Friedman and Mitchell Julis’s Canyon Capital Advisors, David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP, and Jeffrey Gates’s Gates Capital Management.
Insider trading activity in Berry Plastics Group Inc (NYSE:BERY)
Insider buying is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, Berry Plastics Group Inc (NYSE:BERY) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Berry Plastics Group Inc (NYSE:BERY). These stocks are Tredegar Corporation (NYSE:TG), Carlisle Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CSL), Titan International Inc (NYSE:TWI), The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NASDAQ:GT), and Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE:CTB). This group of stocks belong to the rubber & plastics industry and their market caps are similar to BERY’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Tredegar Corporation (NYSE:TG) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Carlisle Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CSL) | 22 | 0 | 0 |
| Titan International Inc (NYSE:TWI) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NASDAQ:GT) | 33 | 0 | 0 |
| Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE:CTB) | 30 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s strategies, average investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Berry Plastics Group Inc (NYSE:BERY) is an important part of this process.
