Costamare Inc (CMRE): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Is Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE) a safe investment now? Hedge funds are turning less bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets went down by 1 recently.

According to most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, old financial vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we at Insider Monkey look at the leaders of this group, close to 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group has its hands on most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by paying attention to their best investments, we have come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the stock market universe. There are lots of motivations for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action surrounding Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE).

Hedge fund activity in Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE)

Heading into Q2, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -13% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, James Dinan’s York Capital Management had the most valuable position in Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE), worth close to $23.8 million, comprising 0.5% of its total 13F portfolio. On York Capital Management’s heels is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $15.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish include Matthew Knauer and Mina Faltas’s Nokota Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

Seeing as Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE) has faced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of money managers that slashed their positions entirely heading into Q2. Intriguingly, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw cut the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we track, comprising an estimated $0.5 million in stock., and Matthew Hulsizer of PEAK6 Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.3 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds heading into Q2.

How are insiders trading Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE). These stocks are Ship Finance International Limited (NYSE:SFL), Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH), Alexander & Baldwin Holdings Inc (NYSE:MATX), Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE:STNG), and Seaspan Corporation (NYSE:SSW). This group of stocks are the members of the shipping industry and their market caps are closest to CMRE’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned studies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds