Should You Avoid Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO)?

Is Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) a healthy stock for your portfolio? The best stock pickers are getting less optimistic. The number of long hedge fund positions stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience

In the eyes of most investors, hedge funds are perceived as slow, outdated investment vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at the moment, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the leaders of this club, around 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by tracking their highest performing picks, we have figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year 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 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as important, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of stimuli for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Now, let’s take a peek at the latest action encompassing Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO).

How are hedge funds trading Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly.

Of the funds we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the most valuable position in Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO), worth close to $265 million, comprising 0.9% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Richard S. Pzena of Pzena Investment Management, with a $15 million position; 0.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management, Drew Cupps’s Cupps Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Due to the fact that Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there exists a select few hedgies who sold off their positions entirely at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management sold off the biggest position of the 450+ funds we key on, comprising close to $7 million in stock., and Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $7 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) has experienced 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) is no exception.

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