In the eyes of many of your peers, hedge funds are seen as bloated, old investment vehicles of a forgotten age. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds trading in present day, this site looks at the moguls of this group, about 525 funds. It is assumed that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total assets, and by monitoring their highest performing investments, we’ve formulated a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find a sample of our picks).
Just as key, bullish insider trading activity is another way to analyze the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Thus, it’s important to study the newest info surrounding Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC).
Hedge fund activity in Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC)
At Q2’s end, a total of 24 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 41% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.
When using filings from the money managers we track, Southeastern Asset Management, managed by Mason Hawkins, holds the largest position in Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC). Southeastern Asset Management has a $296.5 million position in the stock, comprising 1.5% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Matt McLennan of First Eagle Investment Management, with a $268.2 million position; the fund has 0.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors, Sanford J. Colen’s Apex Capital and Douglas Dillard Jr. and Raj D. Venkatesan’s Standard Pacific Capital.
Consequently, particular funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Southeastern Asset Management, managed by Mason Hawkins, assembled the most valuable position in Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC). Southeastern Asset Management had 296.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matt McLennan’s First Eagle Investment Management also made a $268.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new VMC investors: Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors, Sanford J. Colen’s Apex Capital, and Douglas Dillard Jr. and Raj D. Venkatesan’s Standard Pacific Capital.
How have insiders been trading Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC)?
Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) has seen zero unique insiders buying, 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 Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC). These stocks are Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST), Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE:AWI), Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM), Owens Corning (NYSE:OC), and Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS). All of these stocks are in the general building materials industry and their market caps resemble VMC’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE:AWI) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| Owens Corning (NYSE:OC) | 48 | 0 | 0 |
| Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS) | 34 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns demonstrated by our studies, regular investors must always track hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) is no exception.
