Hedge Funds Are Buying Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK)

Is Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK) worth your attention right now? The best stock pickers are taking a bullish view. The number of bullish hedge fund positions improved by 2 recently.

To the average investor, there are a multitude of methods shareholders can use to watch publicly traded companies. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of motivations for an upper level exec to downsize 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 investors understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a look at the latest action encompassing Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK).

What does the smart money think about Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 11% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management had the largest position in Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK), worth close to $321 million, comprising 1.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is David Cohen and Harold Levy of Iridian Asset Management, with a $90 million position; the fund has 1.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have jumped into Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK) headfirst. Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, assembled the most valuable position in Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK). Arrowstreet Capital had 7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital also made a $4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, and Mike Vranos’s Ellington.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned tactics, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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