Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Cna Financial Corp (CNA)?

Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA) was in 12 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. CNA has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 15 hedge funds in our database with CNA positions at the end of the previous quarter.

According to most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, outdated investment tools of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the moguls of this club, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by tracking their top equity investments, we have formulated a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of incentives for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action surrounding Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA).

Hedge fund activity in Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA)

At Q1’s end, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -20% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the biggest position in Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA). Citadel Investment Group has a $25.6 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Brian Taylor of Pine River Capital Management, with a $17 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Steve Leonard’s Pacifica Capital Investments, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Wallace Weitz’s Wallace R. Weitz & Co..

Because Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA) has faced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies that decided to sell off their entire stakes at the end of the first quarter. Interestingly, SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors sold off the biggest stake of all the hedgies we track, comprising about $2.5 million in stock.. Matthew Tewksbury’s fund, Stevens Capital Management, also cut its stock, about $0.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds at the end of the first quarter.

How are insiders trading Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA)?

Insider buying is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA). These stocks are Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:HIG), Arch Capital Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACGL), Cincinnati Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CINF), Everest Re Group Ltd (NYSE:RE), and XL Group plc (NYSE:XL). This group of stocks are the members of the property & casualty insurance industry and their market caps match CNA’s market cap.