Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months.
Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of reasons for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors understand what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at the recent action encompassing Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB).
Hedge fund activity in Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB)
In preparation for this quarter, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 14% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.
Of the funds we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB), worth close to $119.9 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is GAMCO Investors, managed by Mario Gabelli, which held a $38.1 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers have jumped into Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) headfirst. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, created the biggest position in Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB). Two Sigma Advisors had 2.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also initiated a $2.3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CPB investors: D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital, and Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management.
How have insiders been trading Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB). These stocks are Kellogg Company (NYSE:K), McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC), The J.M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM), Mead Johnson Nutrition CO (NYSE:MJN), and ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE:CAG). This group of stocks belong to the processed & packaged goods industry and their market caps resemble CPB’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Kellogg Company (NYSE:K) | 18 | 0 | 9 |
| McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC) | 13 | 0 | 5 |
| The J.M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) | 22 | 0 | 8 |
| Mead Johnson Nutrition CO (NYSE:MJN) | 39 | 1 | 2 |
| ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) | 30 | 0 | 6 |
With the returns shown by our tactics, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) is no exception.
