Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Reinsurance Group of America Inc (RGA)

Is Reinsurance Group of America Inc (NYSE:RGA) worth your attention right now? Investors who are in the know are buying. The number of long hedge fund positions went up by 3 in recent months.

Reinsurance Group of America Inc (NYSE:RGA)In the financial world, there are tons of indicators shareholders can use to monitor the equity markets. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top investment managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are many reasons for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the latest action regarding Reinsurance Group of America Inc (NYSE:RGA).

How have hedgies been trading Reinsurance Group of America Inc (NYSE:RGA)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 19% 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 stakes considerably.

Of the funds we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in Reinsurance Group of America Inc (NYSE:RGA), worth close to $123.3 million, comprising 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Martin D. Sass of MD Sass, with a $38.8 million position; the fund has 2.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that are bullish include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital and Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Diamond Hill Capital, managed by Ric Dillon, created the biggest position in Reinsurance Group of America Inc (NYSE:RGA). Diamond Hill Capital had 22 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also made a $2.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new RGA positions are David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.

How are insiders trading Reinsurance Group of America Inc (NYSE:RGA)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, Reinsurance Group of America Inc (NYSE:RGA) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Reinsurance Group of America Inc (NYSE:RGA). These stocks are Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC), Protective Life Corp. (NYSE:PL), Torchmark Corporation (NYSE:TMK), and Genworth Financial Inc (NYSE:GNW). All of these stocks are in the life insurance industry and their market caps match RGA’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) 27 0 7
Protective Life Corp. (NYSE:PL) 14 0 3
Torchmark Corporation (NYSE:TMK) 14 0 26
Genworth Financial Inc (NYSE:GNW) 39 1 1

With the returns exhibited by our studies, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Reinsurance Group of America Inc (NYSE:RGA) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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