Is Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG) a buy, sell, or hold? Money managers are taking an optimistic view. The number of long hedge fund bets increased by 6 recently.
In the financial world, there are plenty of indicators investors can use to watch their holdings. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Equally as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of stimuli for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a gander at the recent action regarding Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG).
How have hedgies been trading Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 150% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.
According to our comprehensive database, Blue Harbour Group, managed by Clifton S. Robbins, holds the biggest position in Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG). Blue Harbour Group has a $56.9 million position in the stock, comprising 5.8% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Polar Capital, managed by Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley, which held a $9.8 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors.
Consequently, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, established the most valuable position in Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG). Citadel Investment Group had 5.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also initiated a $2.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.
How have insiders been trading Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG)?
Insider buying is best served when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG). These stocks are Amerisafe, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSF), Infinity Property and Casualty Corp. (NASDAQ:IPCC), Maiden Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MHLD), Safety Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAFT), and State Auto Financial (NASDAQ:STFC). This group of stocks belong to the property & casualty insurance industry and their market caps resemble EIG’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Amerisafe, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSF) | 7 | 0 | 2 |
| Infinity Property and Casualty Corp. (NASDAQ:IPCC) | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| Maiden Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MHLD) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Safety Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAFT) | 9 | 0 | 2 |
| State Auto Financial (NASDAQ:STFC) | 4 | 2 | 0 |
With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s research, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG) applies perfectly to this mantra.
