Hedge Funds Are Buying Hasbro, Inc. (HAS)

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Is Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) a good investment?

Now, according to many traders, hedge funds are viewed as delayed, outdated investment tools of a period lost to current times. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open currently, Insider Monkey focuses on the moguls of this group, around 525 funds. It is widely held that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total assets, and by paying attention to their highest quality equity investments, we’ve unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the S&P 500. 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Just as crucial, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to analyze the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are many motivations for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS)

Furthermore, it’s important to study the newest info about Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS).

How have hedgies been trading Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 24 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 71% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, holds the biggest position in Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS). OZ Management has a $57.8 million call position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. On OZ Management’s heels is Gardner Russo & Gardner, managed by Tom Russo, which held a $29.5 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers with similar optimism include David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Now, certain money managers were breaking ground themselves. OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, created the most valuable call position in Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS). OZ Management had 57.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Tom Russo’s Gardner Russo & Gardner also made a $29.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new HAS positions are David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

How are insiders trading Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time period, Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS). These stocks are Kid Brands Inc (NYSE:KID), Gaming Partners International Corp. (NASDAQ:GPIC), JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAKK), LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:LF), and Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT). All of these stocks are in the toys & games industry and their market caps match HAS’s market cap.

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