Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN): Insiders Are Dumping, Should You?

Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN) investors should be aware of a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately.

At the moment, there are dozens of indicators investors can use to track their holdings. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can beat the market by a significant amount (see just how much).

Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN)

Just as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the key action regarding Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN).

What does the smart money think about Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 31 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -6% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the biggest position in Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN), worth close to $60 million billion, comprising 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. On GAMCO Investors’s heels is Debra Fine of Fine Capital Partners, with a $52 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Edward A. Mule’s Silver Point Capital, Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management and Eric Edidin and Josh Lobel’s Archer Capital Management.

Because Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN) has witnessed a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there were a few hedgies who sold off their full holdings heading into 2013. Intriguingly, David Gallo’s Valinor Management LLC dropped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, totaling close to $12 million in stock., and Christopher Pucillo of Solus Alternative Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $5 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds heading into 2013.

What have insiders been doing with Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN) is an important part of this process.

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