Hedge Funds Are Buying Snyder S Lance Inc (LNCE)

Is Snyder S Lance Inc (NASDAQ:LNCE) an outstanding investment now? Hedge funds are turning bullish. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 3 lately.

At the moment, there are many methods shareholders can use to track publicly traded companies. A duo of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of reasons for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a peek at the latest action surrounding Snyder S Lance Inc (NASDAQ:LNCE).

How are hedge funds trading Snyder S Lance Inc (NASDAQ:LNCE)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 43% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the most valuable position in Snyder S Lance Inc (NASDAQ:LNCE), worth close to $53.4 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. On GAMCO Investors’s heels is Otter Creek Management, managed by Roger Keith Long, which held a $11.4 million position; 2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Consequently, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, created the most valuable position in Snyder S Lance Inc (NASDAQ:LNCE). Millennium Management had 3.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also made a $0.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

Insider trading activity in Snyder S Lance Inc (NASDAQ:LNCE)

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Snyder S Lance Inc (NASDAQ:LNCE) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Snyder S Lance Inc (NASDAQ:LNCE). These stocks are The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAIN), TreeHouse Foods Inc. (NYSE:THS), J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF), and B&G Foods, Inc. (NYSE:BGS). All of these stocks are in the processed & packaged goods industry and their market caps are closest to LNCE’s market cap.