Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX)?

Is FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) worth your attention right now? The best stock pickers are taking a bullish view. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 4 lately.

According to most traders, hedge funds are seen as worthless, old investment tools of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we choose to focus on the elite of this club, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by monitoring their best investments, we have unearthed a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Obviously, there are a number of stimuli for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if “monkeys” understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a glance at the latest action encompassing FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX).

How are hedge funds trading FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 40 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 11% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Southeastern Asset Management, managed by Mason Hawkins, holds the most valuable position in FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX). Southeastern Asset Management has a $1.495 billion position in the stock, comprising 6.5% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Edgar Wachenheim of Greenhaven Associates, with a $414 million position; the fund has 12.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies with similar optimism include Michael Larson’s Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, Bain Capital’s Brookside Capital and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Consequently, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Brookside Capital, managed by Bain Capital, initiated the most valuable position in FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX). Brookside Capital had 144 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Anthony Bozza’s Lakewood Capital Management also initiated a $26 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new FDX positions are Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management, James Dondero’s Highland Capital Management, and Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management.

What have insiders been doing with FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX)?

Insider buying is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns demonstrated by the aforementioned studies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) is no exception.

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Insider Monkey’s small-cap strategy returned 29.2% between September 2012 and February 2013 versus 8.7% for the S&P 500 index. Try it now by clicking the link above.