Hasbro, Inc. (HAS): Hedge Funds and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) investors should pay attention to a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately.

In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of gauges investors can use to track the equity markets. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top fund managers can trounce the broader indices by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action regarding Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS).

How are hedge funds trading Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -22% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, holds the biggest position in Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS). OZ Management has a $56.1 million call position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Gardner Russo & Gardner, managed by Tom Russo, which held a $35.2 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Because Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) has experienced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of money managers that decided to sell off their full holdings at the end of the first quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management cut the biggest position of all the hedgies we watch, worth close to $5.8 million in stock.. Matthew Tewksbury’s fund, Stevens Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $3.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds at the end of the first quarter.

What have insiders been doing with Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time frame, Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS). These stocks are Kid Brands Inc (NYSE:KID), Gaming Partners International Corp. (NASDAQ:GPIC), JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAKK), LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:LF), and Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT). This group of stocks are in the toys & games industry and their market caps resemble HAS’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by our research, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) is no exception.

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