To the average investor, there are many gauges market participants can use to watch Mr. Market. Some of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can outpace the broader indices by a solid amount (see just how much).
Just as key, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are lots of stimuli for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if you understand what to do (learn more here).
Thus, it’s important to discuss the latest info about Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG).
How are hedge funds trading Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG)?
Heading into Q3, a total of 30 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.
As Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG) has experienced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there was a specific group of money managers who sold off their entire stakes at the end of the second quarter. Interestingly, Patrick McCormack’s Tiger Consumer Management dropped the biggest stake of all the hedgies we key on, totaling about $72.9 million in stock, and Malcolm Fairbairn of Ascend Capital was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $39.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
How have insiders been trading Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG)?
Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, 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 Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG). These stocks are Arctic Cat Inc (NASDAQ:ACAT), Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO), Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW), Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO), and Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII). All of these stocks are in the recreational vehicles industry and their market caps match HOG’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Arctic Cat Inc (NASDAQ:ACAT) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO) | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII) | 23 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results explained by Insider Monkey’s studies, average investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG) applies perfectly to this mantra.
