At the moment, there are a multitude of indicators investors can use to track stocks. Some of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid margin (see just how much).
Equally as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are plenty of stimuli for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if investors understand where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the key action regarding Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP).
Hedge fund activity in Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP)
Heading into Q2, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -30% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.
Of the funds we track, David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management had the largest position in Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP), worth close to $8.8 million, accounting for 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $3 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.
Since Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP) has witnessed falling interest from the smart money, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of funds who were dropping their positions entirely at the end of the first quarter. At the top of the heap, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management dumped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, totaling about $0.7 million in stock.. Neil Chriss’s fund, Hutchin Hill Capital, also dumped its stock, about $0.3 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds at the end of the first quarter.
How have insiders been trading Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP)?
Insider buying is most useful when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP). These stocks are OM Group, Inc. (NYSE:OMG), Quaker Chemical Corp (NYSE:KWR), Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK), Innospec Inc. (NASDAQ:IOSP), and WD-40 Company (NASDAQ:WDFC). This group of stocks are in the specialty chemicals industry and their market caps match KOP’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| OM Group, Inc. (NYSE:OMG) | 19 | 0 | 1 |
| Quaker Chemical Corp (NYSE:KWR) | 11 | 0 | 8 |
| Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK) | 12 | 0 | 3 |
| Innospec Inc. (NASDAQ:IOSP) | 11 | 0 | 6 |
| WD-40 Company (NASDAQ:WDFC) | 9 | 0 | 6 |
With the returns shown by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
