Should You Buy Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV)?

Is Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV) a buy right now? Prominent investors are getting more optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund positions advanced by 1 lately.

To most investors, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, old investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading today, we look at the top tier of this group, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on the majority of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their top picks, we have unearthed a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are a number of reasons for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action surrounding Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV).

What does the smart money think about Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 14% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES

According to our comprehensive database, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the biggest position in Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV), worth close to $7 million billion, comprising 0% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which held a $3 million position; the fund has 0% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

Now, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, established the most valuable position in Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV). Renaissance Technologies had 7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new EV position is Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.

How have insiders been trading Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns shown by our research, everyday investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

Click here to learn more about Insider Monkey’s Hedge Fund Newsletter

Insider Monkey’s small-cap strategy returned 29.2% between September 2012 and February 2013 versus 8.7% for the S&P 500 index. Try it now by clicking the link above.