Hedge Funds Are Crazy About United Stationers Inc. (USTR)

United Stationers Inc. (NASDAQ:USTR) was in 12 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. USTR investors should be aware of an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with USTR holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

At the moment, there are a multitude of indicators market participants can use to analyze publicly traded companies. A duo of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top investment managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Ken Griffin CITADEL INVESTMENT GROUPEqually as key, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of reasons for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action surrounding United Stationers Inc. (NASDAQ:USTR).

How are hedge funds trading United Stationers Inc. (NASDAQ:USTR)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 33% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Mariko Gordon’s Daruma Asset Management had the largest position in United Stationers Inc. (NASDAQ:USTR), worth close to $55.8 million, comprising 2.8% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, which held a $31.5 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management Group.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have jumped into United Stationers Inc. (NASDAQ:USTR) headfirst. Odey Asset Management Group, managed by Crispin Odey, created the biggest position in United Stationers Inc. (NASDAQ:USTR). Odey Asset Management Group had 2.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Catapult Capital Management also initiated a $1.5 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new USTR investors: Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.

What have insiders been doing with United Stationers Inc. (NASDAQ:USTR)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time frame, United Stationers Inc. (NASDAQ:USTR) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results demonstrated by our tactics, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and United Stationers Inc. (NASDAQ:USTR) is an important part of this process.

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