Brunswick Corporation (BC): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) has seen an increase in enthusiasm from smart money recently.

At the moment, there are many indicators market participants can use to monitor publicly traded companies. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top investment managers can beat their index-focused peers by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a peek at the recent action regarding Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC).

How have hedgies been trading Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 27 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 50% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Mariko Gordon’s Daruma Asset Management had the most valuable position in Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC), worth close to $72.5 million, comprising 3.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Impala Asset Management, managed by Robert Bishop, which held a $20.1 million position; the fund has 1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Van Schreiber’s Bennett Lawrence Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management.

As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, assembled the most valuable position in Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC). Renaissance Technologies had 18.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $11.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BC positions are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners, and David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) has experienced zero 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 Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC). These stocks are Steinway Musical Instruments Inc (NYSE:LVB), Movado Group, Inc (NYSE:MOV), SHFL entertainment Inc (NASDAQ:SHFL), Fossil Inc (NASDAQ:FOSL), and Manchester United PLC (NYSE:MANU). This group of stocks belong to the recreational goods, other industry and their market caps are similar to BC’s market cap.