Is AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG) worth your attention right now? Prominent investors are in a bullish mood. The number of bullish hedge fund bets advanced by 3 lately.
To the average investor, there are tons of indicators shareholders can use to monitor their holdings. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).
Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the financial markets. Obviously, there are lots of incentives for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action encompassing AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG).
What does the smart money think about AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 75% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.
Of the funds we track, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital had the biggest position in AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG), worth close to $18 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Shah Capital Management, managed by Himanshu H. Shah, which held a $3 million position; the fund has 2.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments.
Consequently, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, assembled the biggest position in AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG). Two Sigma Advisors had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new AEG positions are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
How have insiders been trading AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG). These stocks are Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU), Manulife Financial Corporation (USA) (NYSE:MFC), Torchmark Corporation (NYSE:TMK), Sun Life Financial Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SLF), and Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC). This group of stocks are in the life insurance industry and their market caps are closest to AEG’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) | 30 | 1 | 6 |
| Manulife Financial Corporation (USA) (NYSE:MFC) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Torchmark Corporation (NYSE:TMK) | 20 | 0 | 24 |
| Sun Life Financial Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SLF) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) | 25 | 0 | 7 |
With the returns shown by our tactics, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
