In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are dozens of methods market participants can use to monitor the equity markets. 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 elite investment managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a very impressive margin (see just how much).
Just as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of stimuli for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if you understand where to look (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to examine the recent info surrounding Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS).
How have hedgies been trading Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS)?
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 26 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 8% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.
According to our 13F database, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the biggest position in Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS). Fisher Asset Management has a $397.9 million position in the stock, comprising 1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, which held a $66.9 million position; the fund has 0.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital, John Osterweis’s Osterweis Capital Management and Louis Navellier’s Navellier & Associates.
As industrywide interest increased, certain bigger names have been driving this bullishness. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, assembled the most outsized position in Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS). Fisher Asset Management had 397.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also initiated a $66.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital, John Osterweis’s Osterweis Capital Management, and Louis Navellier’s Navellier & Associates.
Insider trading activity in Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS)
Insider buying made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS). These stocks are GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK), Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK), Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE). This group of stocks are in the drug manufacturers – major industry and their market caps are closest to NVS’s market cap.
