DryShips Inc. (DRYS): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. DRYS has experienced an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with DRYS holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

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Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the financial markets. There are a number of reasons for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if you understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a gander at the key action regarding DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS).

How have hedgies been trading DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 29% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Joe DiMenna’s ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS had the largest position in DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS), worth close to $8.7 million, accounting for 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $7.1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Michael Hintze’s CQS Cayman LP.

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers have jumped into DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS) headfirst. CQS Cayman LP, managed by Michael Hintze, established the most valuable position in DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS). CQS Cayman LP had 1.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $0 million position during the quarter.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS). These stocks are Capital Product Partners L.P. (NASDAQ:CPLP), Alexander & Baldwin Holdings Inc (NYSE:MATX), GasLog Ltd (NYSE:GLOG), Diana Shipping Inc. (NYSE:DSX), and Navios Maritime Partners L.P. (NYSE:NMM). This group of stocks are the members of the shipping industry and their market caps are similar to DRYS’s market cap.