In the eyes of many investors, hedge funds are seen as useless, outdated financial tools of an era lost to time. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open today, Insider Monkey aim at the upper echelon of this club, about 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing stock picks, we’ve formulated a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find a sample of our picks).
Just as crucial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the marketplace. There are lots of incentives for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors know where to look (learn more here).
What’s more, let’s examine the recent info for Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA).
How are hedge funds trading Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA)?
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 26 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 30% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.
As aggregate interest spiked, certain bigger names have jumped into Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) headfirst. Third Avenue Management, managed by Martin Whitman, established the most valuable position in Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA). Third Avenue Management had 98.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management also initiated a $77.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new CMA positions are Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
How are insiders trading Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA)?
Insider buying made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA). These stocks are Firstmerit Corp (NASDAQ:FMER), Associated Banc Corp (NASDAQ:ASBC), Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB), TFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:TFSL), and Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN). All of these stocks are in the regional – midwest banks industry and their market caps are closest to CMA’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Firstmerit Corp (NASDAQ:FMER) | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Associated Banc Corp (NASDAQ:ASBC) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) | 28 | 0 | 0 |
| TFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:TFSL) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) | 26 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns explained by the previously mentioned studies, regular investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) is an important part of this process.
