Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Neenah Paper, Inc. (NP)?

Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP) has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently.

In the financial world, there are plenty of methods investors can use to analyze Mr. Market. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can trounce the broader indices by a solid amount (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the financial markets. Obviously, there are plenty of reasons for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a look at the key action surrounding Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP).

Hedge fund activity in Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP)

Heading into 2013, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management had the most valuable position in Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP), worth close to $2.5 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which held a $1.7 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Kroch’s GRT Capital Partners, J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Judging by the fact that Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP) has experienced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there was a specific group of hedgies that decided to sell off their positions entirely at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management dropped the largest stake of all the hedgies we track, worth about $2.9 million in stock., and Mike Vranos of Ellington was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.2 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How have insiders been trading Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP). These stocks are Buckeye Technologies Inc. (NYSE:BKI), P.H. Glatfelter Company (NYSE:GLT), Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ), Mercer International Inc. (NASDAQ:MERC), and Wausau Paper Corp. (NYSE:WPP). This group of stocks belong to the paper & paper products industry and their market caps are closest to NP’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s strategies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP) is an important part of this process.

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