Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH) investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of gauges shareholders can use to watch their holdings. A duo of the most useful 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 best money managers can outperform the broader indices by a superb margin (see just how much).
Just as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of stimuli for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if investors understand where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the recent action regarding Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH).
What does the smart money think about Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -6% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.
According to our comprehensive database, Okumus Fund Management, managed by Ahmet Okumus, holds the biggest position in Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH). Okumus Fund Management has a $19.9 million position in the stock, comprising 17.8% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Michael Blitzer of Kingstown Capital Management, with a $8.7 million position; 1.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack’s Nantahala Capital Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
Judging by the fact that Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH) has faced falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there were a few funds that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that Philip Hempleman’s Ardsley Partners dropped the largest position of all the hedgies we watch, totaling close to $7.3 million in stock., and Michael Doheny of Freshford Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $6.7 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds heading into Q2.
What have insiders been doing with Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH)?
Insider buying is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH). These stocks are Elizabeth Arden, Inc. (NASDAQ:RDEN), United-Guardian, Inc. (NASDAQ:UG), Inter Parfums, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPAR), Nutraceutical Int’l Corp. (NASDAQ:NUTR), and The Female Health Company (NASDAQ:FHCO). This group of stocks belong to the personal products industry and their market caps are similar to BTH’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Elizabeth Arden, Inc. (NASDAQ:RDEN) | 9 | 0 | 5 |
| United-Guardian, Inc. (NASDAQ:UG) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Inter Parfums, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPAR) | 8 | 0 | 7 |
| Nutraceutical Int’l Corp. (NASDAQ:NUTR) | 2 | 0 | 7 |
| The Female Health Company (NASDAQ:FHCO) | 7 | 1 | 4 |
With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s studies, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
