If you were to ask many market players, hedge funds are perceived as delayed, old financial vehicles of an era lost to time. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds in operation currently, this site aim at the elite of this group, around 525 funds. It is widely held that this group controls the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total assets, and by keeping an eye on their best equity investments, we’ve formulated a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as necessary, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are many motivations for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).
Furthermore, we’re going to discuss the newest info surrounding Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS).
How are hedge funds trading Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS)?
Heading into Q3, a total of 34 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 13% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.
Consequently, particular hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, assembled the most outsized position in Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS). Pzena Investment Management had 201.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors also initiated a $101.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new MAS investors: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP, and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.
Insider trading activity in Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS)
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS). These stocks are Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE:AWI), Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST), Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM), Owens Corning (NYSE:OC), and Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC). This group of stocks are the members of the general building materials industry and their market caps match MAS’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE:AWI) | 15 | 0 | 2 |
| Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) | 17 | 3 | 1 |
| Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) | 23 | 0 | 8 |
| Owens Corning (NYSE:OC) | 48 | 0 | 4 |
| Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) | 24 | 1 | 2 |
Using the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, regular investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
