Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Steelcase Inc. (SCS)?

Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS) has seen a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months.

To the average investor, there are plenty of gauges shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can trounce the broader indices by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Just as important, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the world of equities. There are plenty of motivations for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).

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

Hedge fund activity in Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS)

At Q1’s end, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -19% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management had the biggest position in Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS), worth close to $10.4 million, accounting for less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $10.4 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Because Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS) has witnessed declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there were a few fund managers that elected to cut their full holdings at the end of the first quarter. Intriguingly, Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management dropped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, worth close to $3.8 million in stock.. Drew Cupps’s fund, Cupps Capital Management, also dumped its stock, about $2.2 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds at the end of the first quarter.

How are insiders trading Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS). These stocks are Knoll Inc (NYSE:KNL), Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI), VeriFone Systems Inc (NYSE:PAY), HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI), and Herman Miller, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLHR). All of these stocks are in the business equipment industry and their market caps are similar to SCS’s market cap.

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS) is no exception.

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