Is New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR) a bargain? The best stock pickers are getting more bullish. The number of long hedge fund positions inched up by 6 recently.
In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of gauges shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. A pair of the most innovative 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 best hedge fund managers can outpace the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).
Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are many reasons for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a peek at the key action encompassing New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR).
Hedge fund activity in New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR)
At year’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 300% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group had the biggest position in New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR), worth close to $2.8 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Citadel Investment Group’s heels is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $2.6 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, initiated the biggest position in New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR). Renaissance Technologies had 2.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $1.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new NJR investors: Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.
Insider trading activity in New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR)
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR). These stocks are Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. (NYSE:PNY), WGL Holdings Inc (NYSE:WGL), Atlas Energy LP (NYSE:ATLS), Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX), and South Jersey Industries Inc (NYSE:SJI). This group of stocks are the members of the gas utilities industry and their market caps are similar to NJR’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. (NYSE:PNY) | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| WGL Holdings Inc (NYSE:WGL) | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Atlas Energy LP (NYSE:ATLS) | 11 | 0 | 1 |
| Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) | 12 | 1 | 10 |
| South Jersey Industries Inc (NYSE:SJI) | 2 | 3 | 7 |
With the returns shown by the aforementioned tactics, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR) applies perfectly to this mantra.
