Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NUS): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Page 1 of 2

If you were to ask many market players, hedge funds are viewed as delayed, old financial vehicles of a period lost to current times. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds trading today, this site focuses on the upper echelon of this club, about 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group has its hands on the majority of all hedge funds’ total assets, and by paying attention to their highest performing investments, we’ve unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS)

Just as necessary, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are many motivations for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to examine the recent info for Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS).

What have hedge funds been doing with Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 31% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS). Royce & Associates has a $419.1 million position in the stock, comprising 1.3% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $39.9 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

As aggregate interest spiked, certain money managers have jumped into Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS) headfirst. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, assembled the biggest position in Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS). Royce & Associates had 419.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $39.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS). These stocks are Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP), Inter Parfums, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPAR), Energizer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ENR), Elizabeth Arden, Inc. (NASDAQ:RDEN), and Revlon Inc (NYSE:REV). All of these stocks are in the personal products industry and their market caps resemble NUS’s market cap.

Page 1 of 2