To most investors, hedge funds are seen as unimportant, old financial tools of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, we hone in on the bigwigs of this club, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by tracking their best picks, we have found a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of stimuli for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
Now, we’re going to take a gander at the key action encompassing Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR).
How have hedgies been trading Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR)?
At year’s end, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 6% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.
According to our comprehensive database, Oaktree Capital Management, managed by Howard Marks, holds the largest position in Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR). Oaktree Capital Management has a $38 million position in the stock, comprising 0.7% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Goodnow Investment Group, managed by Edward Goodnow, which held a $37 million position; 0.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors, Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital and “Richard S. Meisenberg’s ACK Asset Management.
Consequently, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Oaktree Capital Management, managed by Howard Marks, assembled the most outsized position in Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR). Oaktree Capital Management had 38 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also initiated a $8 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new GWR investors: Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Bart Baum’s Ionic Capital Management, and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
How have insiders been trading Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR)?
Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time frame, Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR) has experienced 2 unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the returns shown by our research, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR) is no exception.
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