Hedge Funds Are Buying Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK)

Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK) was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. JACK investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund interest lately. There were 12 hedge funds in our database with JACK holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

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Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK)

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are many incentives for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a gander at the key action surrounding Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK).

Hedge fund activity in Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK)

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 25% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Clifton S. Robbins’s Blue Harbour Group had the biggest position in Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK), worth close to $86 million, accounting for 9.7% of its total 13F portfolio. On Blue Harbour Group’s heels is Joshua Friedman and Mitchell Julis of Canyon Capital Advisors, with a $24 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Glenn J. Krevlin’s Glenhill Advisors, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and James Dondero’s Highland Capital Management.

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Ascend Capital, managed by Malcolm Fairbairn, initiated the most outsized position in Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK). Ascend Capital had 5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp also initiated a $3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new JACK investors: Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time frame, Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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