Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Kansas City Southern (KSU)

What’s a smart Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU) investor to do?

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are a multitude of methods investors can use to track stocks. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can outperform the market by a significant margin (see just how much).

Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU)

Just as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to analyze the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of stimuli for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

What’s more, it’s important to discuss the recent info for Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU).

How are hedge funds trading Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 6% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the most valuable position in Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU), worth close to $80.1 million, comprising 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which held a $24.3 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

As one would understandably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, established the biggest position in Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU). Fisher Asset Management had 80.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $24.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new KSU investors: Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

What have insiders been doing with Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU). These stocks are Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB), Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR), Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC), CSX Corporation (NYSE:CSX), and Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (USA) (NYSE:CP). This group of stocks belong to the railroads industry and their market caps are closest to KSU’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB) 23 0 0
Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR) 22 0 0
Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC) 33 0 0
CSX Corporation (NYSE:CSX) 39 0 0
Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (USA) (NYSE:CP) 28 0 0

Using the results explained by Insider Monkey’s research, regular investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU) is no exception.

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Ford Motor Company (F), Kansas City Southern (KSU): Profit From the Auto Industry’s Expansion Into Mexico

CSX Corporation (CSX), Union Pacific Corporation (UNP), Kansas City Southern (KSU): This Railroad Company Is Chugging Along Nicely