Do you follow DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS)?
At the moment, there are dozens of metrics investors can use to watch their holdings. Some of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).
Just as crucial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are many reasons for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to study the recent info surrounding DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS).
How are hedge funds trading DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.
According to our 13F database, Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital had the biggest position in DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS), worth close to $76.7 million, accounting for 3.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $7.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company, Don Morgan’s Brigade Capital and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
As DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS) has experienced declining interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedgies that elected to cut their full holdings at the end of the second quarter. Interestingly, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies said goodbye to the largest investment of all the hedgies we watch, valued at an estimated $2.9 million in stock, and Michael Hintze of CQS Cayman LP was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $1.7 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Insider trading activity in DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS)
Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators 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 belong to the shipping industry and their market caps match DRYS’s market cap.
#N/A
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Capital Product Partners L.P. (NASDAQ:CPLP) | 0 | 0 | |
| Alexander & Baldwin Holdings Inc (NYSE:MATX) | 16 | 0 | 1 |
| GasLog Ltd (NYSE:GLOG) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Diana Shipping Inc. (NYSE:DSX) | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Navios Maritime Partners L.P. (NYSE:NMM) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns explained by the previously mentioned studies, regular investors should always track hedge fund and insider trading activity, and DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
