Is Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) (ITUB) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Page 1 of 2

At the moment, there are tons of methods shareholders can use to track Mr. Market. A couple of the most under-the-radar 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 investment managers can trounce the market by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Equally as useful, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the marketplace. There are plenty of stimuli for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Furthermore, we’re going to discuss the latest info surrounding Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) (NYSE:ITUB).

Hedge fund activity in Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) (NYSE:ITUB)

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 22 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 16% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) (NYSE:ITUB)Out of the hedge funds we follow, International Value Advisers, managed by Charles de Vaulx, holds the most valuable position in Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) (NYSE:ITUB). International Value Advisers has a $114.7 million position in the stock, comprising 3% of its 13F portfolio. On International Value Advisers’s heels is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $43.7 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Bart Baum’s Ionic Capital Management.

As industrywide interest increased, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. International Value Advisers, managed by Charles de Vaulx, assembled the largest position in Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) (NYSE:ITUB). International Value Advisers had 114.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also made a $43.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ITUB investors: Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Bart Baum’s Ionic Capital Management.

Insider trading activity in Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) (NYSE:ITUB)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) (NYSE:ITUB) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) (NYSE:ITUB). These stocks are Lloyds Banking Group PLC (ADR) (NYSE:LYG), Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS), UBS AG (USA) (NYSE:UBS), Westpac Banking Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:WBK), and Banco Santander, S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:SAN). This group of stocks are in the foreign money center banks industry and their market caps resemble ITUB’s market cap.

Page 1 of 2