If you were to ask many of your peers, hedge funds are viewed as bloated, outdated investment tools of a period lost to current times. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds in operation today, Insider Monkey focuses on the moguls of this group, around 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group controls the majority of the smart money’s total assets, and by tracking their highest quality stock picks, we’ve found a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as useful, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the marketplace. Obviously, there are many incentives for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
Furthermore, we’re going to study the latest info surrounding MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG).
What does the smart money think about MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG)?
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -13% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.
When using filings from the hedgies we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG). Royce & Associates has a $14.2 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is John A. Levin of Levin Capital Strategies, with a $8.1 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Since MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the top-tier hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few money managers that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital said goodbye to the biggest investment of all the hedgies we watch, worth close to $1.3 million in stock. Ken Grossman and Glen Schneider’s fund, SG Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $0.8 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds last quarter.
How are insiders trading MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG)?
Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG) has experienced 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 MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG). These stocks are Quanta Services Inc (NYSE:PWR), Emcor Group Inc (NYSE:EME), Integrated Electrical Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:IESC), Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE), and Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX). This group of stocks are in the general contractors industry and their market caps are closest to MYRG’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Quanta Services Inc (NYSE:PWR) | 33 | 0 | 0 |
| Emcor Group Inc (NYSE:EME) | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| Integrated Electrical Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:IESC) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE) | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results explained by the previously mentioned strategies, regular investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG) is an important part of this process.
