In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of gauges investors can use to monitor publicly traded companies. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a superb amount (see just how much).
Just as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the stock market universe. There are a variety of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action surrounding salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM).
How are hedge funds trading salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 42 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 5% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.
According to our comprehensive database, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors had the biggest position in salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), worth close to $153.4 million, comprising 1.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $108 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, David Stemerman’s Conatus Capital Management and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, established the largest position in salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM). Citadel Investment Group had 88 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Thaler’s JAT Capital Management also made a $42.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new CRM positions are Panayotis Takis Sparaggis’s Alkeon Capital Management, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, and Bart Baum’s Ionic Capital Management.
How have insiders been trading salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) has experienced 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 15 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM). These stocks are Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY), Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX), CA, Inc. (NASDAQ:CA), Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU), and Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE). This group of stocks are in the application software industry and their market caps match CRM’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY) | 25 | 0 | 4 |
| Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX) | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| CA, Inc. (NASDAQ:CA) | 25 | 0 | 5 |
| Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) | 31 | 0 | 7 |
| Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) | 34 | 1 | 10 |
With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, everyday investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
