Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM): Hedge Funds and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do? – KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR), Legg Mason, Inc. (NYSE:LM)

Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. OZM has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with OZM holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, outdated investment vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the upper echelon of this group, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their highest performing picks, we have revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (check out a sample of our picks).

Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM)

Equally as important, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are a number of motivations for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a gander at the latest action encompassing Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM).

What have hedge funds been doing with Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Levin Capital Strategies, managed by John A. Levin, holds the largest position in Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM). Levin Capital Strategies has a $22 million position in the stock, comprising 0.4% of its 13F portfolio. On Levin Capital Strategies’s heels is Anand Parekh of Alyeska Investment Group, with a $16 million position; the fund has 0.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Joe DiMenna’s ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS.

Insider trading activity in Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM)

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM). These stocks are KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR), Legg Mason, Inc. (NYSE:LM), Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ), Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. (NYSE:WDR), and American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACAS). This group of stocks are the members of the asset management industry and their market caps resemble OZM’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR) 19 0 2
Legg Mason, Inc. (NYSE:LM) 20 1 0
Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ) 14 0 2
Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. (NYSE:WDR) 10 0 7
American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACAS) 21 0 9

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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