Hedge Funds Are Buying Great Plains Energy Incorporated (GXP)

Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP) has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately.

At the moment, there are dozens of gauges investors can use to analyze the equity markets. A duo 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 top picks of the top fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to break down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of reasons for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the recent action encompassing Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP).

Hedge fund activity in Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP)

At Q1’s end, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 7% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management had the most valuable position in Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP), worth close to $53.8 million, comprising 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On Millennium Management’s heels is Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors, with a $22.6 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

Consequently, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Visium Asset Management, managed by Jacob Gottlieb, created the largest position in Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP). Visium Asset Management had 3.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Thomas M. Fitzgerald’s Longbow Capital Partners also made a $1.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Mike Vranos’s Ellington and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Insider trading activity in Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP). These stocks are Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA (ADR) (NYSE:EBR), Cleco Corporation (NYSE:CNL), Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN), Companhia Paranaense de Energia (ADR) (NYSE:ELP), and TECO Energy, Inc. (NYSE:TE). All of these stocks are in the electric utilities industry and their market caps match GXP’s market cap.