Is KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR) worth your attention right now? The best stock pickers are turning bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets inched up by 5 in recent months.
At the moment, there are tons of methods investors can use to watch stocks. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see just how much).
Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the stock market universe. There are lots of motivations for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if you understand where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the latest action surrounding KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR).
What have hedge funds been doing with KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 23 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 28% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.
According to our comprehensive database, Platinum Asset Management, managed by Kerr Neilson, holds the most valuable position in KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR). Platinum Asset Management has a $78 million position in the stock, comprising 1.7% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by East Side Capital (RR Partners), managed by Steven Richman, which held a $76.8 million position; the fund has 3.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Appaloosa Management LP, managed by David Tepper, assembled the biggest position in KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR). Appaloosa Management LP had 14.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors also made a $6.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new KBR investors: Daniel Arbess’s Xerion, Jane Mendillo’s Harvard Management Co, and SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors.
How are insiders trading KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR)?
Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR). These stocks are Jacobs Engineering Group Inc (NYSE:JEC), The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE:SHAW), AECOM Technology Corp (NYSE:ACM), URS Corp (NYSE:URS), and SAIC, Inc. (NYSE:SAI). All of these stocks are in the technical services industry and their market caps are similar to KBR’s market cap.
