If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are perceived as slow, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey look at the crème de la crème of this group, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on most of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by watching their best equity investments, we have come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped 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 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see all of our picks from August).
Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of incentives for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if you understand where to look (learn more here).
Now, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action surrounding Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC).
What does the smart money think about Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC)?
In preparation for this year, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.
Of the funds we track, Joshua Friedman and Mitchell Julis’s Canyon Capital Advisors had the most valuable position in Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC), worth close to $30 million, accounting for 4.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which held a $26 million position; 0% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Howard Guberman’s Gruss Asset Management and Steven Tananbaum’s GoldenTree Asset Management.
Judging by the fact that Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC) has experienced a declination in interest from the smart money, we can see that there were a few money managers who sold off their positions entirely at the end of the year. Interestingly, Kelly Cardwell’s Central Square Management cut the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, valued at an estimated $10 million in stock., and Robert B. Gillam of McKinley Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $2 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
How have insiders been trading Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC)?
Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, retail investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC) is no exception.
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