Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Gibraltar Industries Inc (ROCK)

Is Gibraltar Industries Inc (NASDAQ:ROCK) undervalued? Hedge funds are betting on the stock. The number of long hedge fund positions improved by 1 recently.

In the financial world, there are many indicators shareholders can use to watch their holdings. Two 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 investment managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the financial markets. There are lots of reasons for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the latest action surrounding Gibraltar Industries Inc (NASDAQ:ROCK).

How have hedgies been trading Gibraltar Industries Inc (NASDAQ:ROCK)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 11% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.

Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the biggest position in Gibraltar Industries Inc (NASDAQ:ROCK). Royce & Associates has a $11.2 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $8.5 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Bryn Mawr Capital, managed by Ken Gray and Steve Walsh, assembled the largest position in Gibraltar Industries Inc (NASDAQ:ROCK). Bryn Mawr Capital had 0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also made a $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

How are insiders trading Gibraltar Industries Inc (NASDAQ:ROCK)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Gibraltar Industries Inc (NASDAQ:ROCK) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero 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 Gibraltar Industries Inc (NASDAQ:ROCK). These stocks are Northwest Pipe Company (NASDAQ:NWPX), SunCoke Energy, Inc (NYSE:SXC), Insteel Industries Inc (NASDAQ:IIIN), Metals USA Holdings Corp (NYSE:MUSA), and AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS). All of these stocks are in the steel & iron industry and their market caps match ROCK’s market cap.