Is Bemis Company, Inc. (BMS) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds? – Sealed Air Corp (SEE), Packaging Corp Of America (PKG)

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Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. BMS shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. There were 12 hedge funds in our database with BMS positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are plenty of metrics shareholders can use to track publicly traded companies. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are many incentives for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the key action surrounding Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS).

What does the smart money think about Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS)?

At year’s end, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -8% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, holds the biggest position in Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS). SAC Capital Advisors has a $21 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $17.3 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds that hold long positions include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.

Due to the fact that Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS) has experienced a declination in interest from the smart money, logic holds that there is a sect of fund managers who were dropping their entire stakes heading into 2013. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies dumped the largest investment of all the hedgies we key on, worth close to $10 million in stock.. D. E. Shaw’s fund, D E Shaw, also cut its stock, about $1.2 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds heading into 2013.

What have insiders been doing with Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS)?

Insider buying is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time period, Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS). These stocks are Sealed Air Corp (NYSE:SEE), AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR), Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE:TUP), Packaging Corp Of America (NYSE:PKG), and Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE:OI). This group of stocks belong to the packaging & containers industry and their market caps resemble BMS’s market cap.

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