Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love American Greetings Corporation (AM)?

Is American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM) a buy, sell, or hold? The best stock pickers are buying. The number of bullish hedge fund bets advanced by 4 in recent months.

According to most market participants, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, outdated financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey look at the upper echelon of this club, about 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group controls most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by paying attention to their top equity investments, we have discovered a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are plenty of reasons for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the key action regarding American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM).

Hedge fund activity in American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 29% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the most valuable position in American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM). AQR Capital Management has a $32.7 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Pentwater Capital Management, managed by Matthew Halbower, which held a $8.9 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that are bullish include David Gallo’s Valinor Management LLC, Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack’s Nantahala Capital Management and Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have jumped into American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM) headfirst. D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, created the most valuable position in American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM). D E Shaw had 2.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also made a $1.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new AM investors: Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

How are insiders trading American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM). These stocks are MarineMax, Inc. (NYSE:HZO), Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ), Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS), Titan Machinery Inc. (NASDAQ:TITN), and United Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNTD). This group of stocks are the members of the specialty retail, other industry and their market caps are closest to AM’s market cap.