In the eyes of many market players, hedge funds are assumed to be bloated, old financial vehicles of an era lost to time. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open today, Insider Monkey focuses on the top tier of this group, about 525 funds. It is widely held that this group oversees the majority of all hedge funds’ total assets, and by tracking their highest performing investments, we’ve discovered a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find a sample of our picks).
Equally as crucial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are many reasons for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors understand what to do (learn more here).
What’s more, we’re going to discuss the latest info surrounding Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR).
How have hedgies been trading Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR)?
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 25% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.
According to our 13F database, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the biggest position in Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR). Renaissance Technologies has a $64.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $7.7 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that are bullish include Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.
As aggregate interest spiked, certain money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. PEAK6 Capital Management, managed by Matthew Hulsizer, initiated the most valuable position in Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR). PEAK6 Capital Management had 944.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $64.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are John Osterweis’s Osterweis Capital Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
How have insiders been trading Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR)?
Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR). These stocks are Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM), British American Tobacco PLC (ADR) (NYSEAMEX:BTI), Altria Group Inc (NYSE:MO), Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI), and Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO). This group of stocks are the members of the cigarettes industry and their market caps are closest to VGR’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) | 55 | 0 | 0 |
| British American Tobacco PLC (ADR) (NYSEAMEX:BTI) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Altria Group Inc (NYSE:MO) | 32 | 0 | 0 |
| Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI) | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO) | 26 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns explained by our strategies, average investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
