Is Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW) a buy, sell, or hold? The best stock pickers are taking a bullish view. The number of long hedge fund bets rose by 2 lately.
At the moment, there are plenty of indicators market participants can use to watch publicly traded companies. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can beat the market by a superb margin (see just how much).
Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of incentives for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” understand what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, let’s take a gander at the key action regarding Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW).
What does the smart money think about Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW)?
In preparation for this year, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 17% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.
According to our comprehensive database, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the biggest position in Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW), worth close to $89 million, accounting for 0.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, which held a $34 million position; 0% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that hold long positions include David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, Alexander Roepers’s Atlantic Investment Management and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.
As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, created the most valuable position in Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW). Millennium Management had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW)?
Insider buying is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW). These stocks are Coherent, Inc. (NASDAQ:COHR), Geospace Technologies Corp (NASDAQ:GEOS), Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI), Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX), and Ixia (NASDAQ:XXIA). This group of stocks belong to the scientific & technical instruments industry and their market caps are closest to CW’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Coherent, Inc. (NASDAQ:COHR) | 3 | 0 | 9 |
| Geospace Technologies Corp (NASDAQ:GEOS) | 12 | 0 | 4 |
| Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) | 15 | 0 | 1 |
| Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) | 7 | 0 | 5 |
| Ixia (NASDAQ:XXIA) | 7 | 0 | 11 |
With the returns exhibited by the aforementioned studies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
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