AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late.

If you’d ask most traders, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, outdated financial vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the masters of this group, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls most of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their top equity investments, we have unearthed a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see the details here).

Equally as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. There are many incentives for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a gander at the key action regarding AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS).

How have hedgies been trading AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS)?

At year’s end, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 111% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management had the largest position in AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS), worth close to $33 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by John Burbank of Passport Capital, with a $21 million position; 0.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Paul Tanico’s Castlerock Asset Management and Joe DiMenna’s ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS.

Consequently, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Passport Capital, managed by John Burbank, assembled the largest position in AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS). Passport Capital had 21 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tanico’s Castlerock Asset Management also initiated a $5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management, Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management, and Boaz Weinstein’s Saba Capital.

How have insiders been trading AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) has experienced 6 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results exhibited by our strategies, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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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.