Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock? – KEYW Holding Corp. (KEYW), AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (ASIA)

Is Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC) a buy, sell, or hold? The smart money is reducing their bets on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund bets decreased by 2 lately.

To the average investor, there are many metrics investors can use to monitor their holdings. Two of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can outclass the market by a solid amount (see just how much).

Just as key, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. There are many incentives for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a gander at the key action surrounding Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC).

What have hedge funds been doing with Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -13% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC), worth close to $128.1 million, comprising 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Ariel Investments, managed by John W. Rogers, which held a $67 million position; the fund has 1.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Seeing as Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few hedge funds that decided to sell off their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management sold off the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, totaling close to $1.5 million in stock.. Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s fund, LMR Partners, also cut its stock, about $0.5 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds last quarter.

How have insiders been trading Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC). These stocks are Intralinks Holdings Inc (NYSE:IL), KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW), AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA), Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT), and Sourcefire, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIRE). This group of stocks are in the security software & services industry and their market caps match BRC’s market cap.

With the results shown by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds