Actuant Corporation (ATU): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock? – Generac Holdings Inc. (GNRC), ITT Corp (ITT)

Is Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) a great investment right now? Money managers are becoming less confident. The number of bullish hedge fund positions retreated by 6 recently.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are many methods shareholders can use to track stocks. Two of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can outclass the broader indices by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of motivations for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a glance at the key action encompassing Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU).

Hedge fund activity in Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU)

In preparation for this year, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -38% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, holds the most valuable position in Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU). Pzena Investment Management has a $32 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell of Arrowstreet Capital, with a $20 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Boaz Weinstein’s Saba Capital.

Due to the fact that Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) has faced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there exists a select few hedge funds that slashed their positions entirely in Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC cut the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we track, totaling close to $21 million in stock., and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson of Adage Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $15 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 6 funds in Q4.

Insider trading activity in Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU). These stocks are Polypore International, Inc. (NYSE:PPO), ITT Corp (NYSE:ITT), Rexnord Corp (NYSE:RXN), Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC), and Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA). This group of stocks belong to the diversified machinery industry and their market caps resemble ATU’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) is an important part of this process.

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