Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (HY): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (NYSE:HY) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months.

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of gauges shareholders can use to monitor their holdings. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as important, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the world of equities. There are many incentives for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if you know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a glance at the latest action encompassing Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (NYSE:HY).

How are hedge funds trading Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (NYSE:HY)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 27% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Robert Bishop’s Impala Asset Management had the biggest position in Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (NYSE:HY), worth close to $25.2 million, accounting for 1.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Martin Whitman of Third Avenue Management, with a $13.4 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital, David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have jumped into Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (NYSE:HY) headfirst. Hutchin Hill Capital, managed by Neil Chriss, established the largest position in Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (NYSE:HY). Hutchin Hill Capital had 0.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also initiated a $0.5 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new HY investors: Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management.

How have insiders been trading Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (NYSE:HY)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (NYSE:HY) has seen 2 unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (NYSE:HY). These stocks are Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK), Spartan Motors Inc (NASDAQ:SPAR), Navistar International Corp (NYSE:NAV), Accuride Corporation (NYSE:ACW), and Wabash National Corporation (NYSE:WNC). This group of stocks are the members of the trucks & other vehicles industry and their market caps resemble HY’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) 24 1 8
Spartan Motors Inc (NASDAQ:SPAR) 8 0 1
Navistar International Corp (NYSE:NAV) 20 3 1
Accuride Corporation (NYSE:ACW) 10 4 1
Wabash National Corporation (NYSE:WNC) 17 0 1

With the returns exhibited by our research, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (NYSE:HY) is an important part of this process.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds