Is Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF) a buy right now? The best stock pickers are in a bullish mood. The number of long hedge fund positions improved by 2 in recent months.
If you’d ask most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be worthless, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at present, we hone in on the top tier of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their best investments, we have uncovered a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of incentives for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).
Now, let’s take a glance at the key action encompassing Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF).
How are hedge funds trading Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 27 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 8% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Trian Partners, managed by Nelson Peltz, holds the biggest position in Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF). Trian Partners has a $58 million position in the stock, comprising 2.4% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Scout Capital Management, managed by James Crichton and Adam Weiss, which held a $42 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Moore Global Investments, managed by Louis Bacon, created the largest call position in Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF). Moore Global Investments had 11 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group also initiated a $8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, David Keidan’s Buckingham Capital Management, and Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management.
How have insiders been trading Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF)?
Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the results exhibited by our time-tested strategies, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF) is no exception.
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