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

Should Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA) investors track the following data?

In the eyes of many traders, hedge funds are seen as useless, old financial tools of a period lost to current times. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds trading today, Insider Monkey aim at the upper echelon of this group, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total capital, and by tracking their best stock picks, we’ve come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 outclassed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find a sample of our picks).

Equally as useful, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the stock market universe. There are plenty of reasons for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” understand what to do (learn more here).

Furthermore, we’re going to analyze the latest info about Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA).

What have hedge funds been doing with Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 25% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

According to our 13F database, Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, holds the largest position in Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA). Millennium Management has a $19 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $16.3 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Steve Leonard’s Pacifica Capital Investments, Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management and Wallace Weitz’s Wallace R. Weitz & Co..

Now, particular hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, assembled the most valuable position in Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA). Millennium Management had 19 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $16.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new CNA positions are Steve Leonard’s Pacifica Capital Investments, Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management, and Wallace Weitz’s Wallace R. Weitz & Co..

What have insiders been doing with Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators 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). All of these stocks are in the property & casualty insurance industry and their market caps match CNA’s market cap.

Using the returns demonstrated by the previously mentioned analyses, average investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA) is no exception.

Discover how hedge fund piggybacking can benefit you