What Hedge Funds Think About AptarGroup, Inc. (ATR)

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Now, according to many market players, hedge funds are viewed as delayed, old investment vehicles of a forgotten age. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open today, Insider Monkey looks at the moguls of this club, about 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group oversees most of the smart money’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing picks, we’ve discovered a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outperformed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (see all of our picks from August).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to analyze the world of equities. There are plenty of reasons for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to study the newest info surrounding AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR).

How have hedgies been trading AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -11% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR)According to our 13F database, Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, holds the largest position in AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR). Adage Capital Management has a $67.7 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which held a $18.5 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and John Fichthorn’s Dialectic Capital Management.

Because AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) has witnessed declining interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, logic holds that there is a sect of hedge funds who sold off their positions entirely at the end of the second quarter. At the top of the heap, Ken Grossman and Glen Schneider’s SG Capital Management said goodbye to the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we key on, totaling close to $6.1 million in stock, and Israel Englander of Catapult Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $2.8 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds at the end of the second quarter.

How are insiders trading AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR). These stocks are Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE:TUP), Packaging Corp Of America (NYSE:PKG), Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE:OI), Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS), and Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON). All of these stocks are in the packaging & containers industry and their market caps resemble ATR’s market cap.

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