Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORE) was in 12 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. CORE investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 12 hedge funds in our database with CORE holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are seen as unimportant, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at the moment, we hone in on the crème de la crème of this group, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by paying attention to their best investments, we have determined a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. 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 started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as important, bullish insider trading activity is another way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a number of reasons for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, let’s take a peek at the recent action surrounding Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORE).
What does the smart money think about Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORE)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.
According to our comprehensive database, Wynnefield Capital, managed by Nelson Obus, holds the most valuable position in Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORE). Wynnefield Capital has a $36.2 million position in the stock, comprising 12.3% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $7.7 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Seeing as Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORE) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there exists a select few fund managers who were dropping their entire stakes last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management cut the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, valued at about $0.8 million in stock., and Mike Vranos of Ellington was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORE)?
Insider buying is most useful when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORE) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORE). These stocks are Susser Holdings Corporation (NYSE:SUSS), SUPERVALU INC. (NYSE:SVU), Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Inc (NYSE:NGVC), Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA), and Ingles Markets, Incorporated (NASDAQ:IMKTA). All of these stocks are in the grocery stores industry and their market caps are similar to CORE’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Susser Holdings Corporation (NYSE:SUSS) | 17 | 1 | 5 |
| SUPERVALU INC. (NYSE:SVU) | 34 | 0 | 1 |
| Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Inc (NYSE:NGVC) | 9 | 1 | 2 |
| Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA) | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| Ingles Markets, Incorporated (NASDAQ:IMKTA) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s research, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORE) applies perfectly to this mantra.
