Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Raven Industries, Inc. (RAVN): Park Electrochemical Corp. (PKE), TTM Technologies, Inc. (TTMI)

Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN) has seen an increase in hedge fund interest of late.

At the moment, there are many metrics investors can use to track the equity markets. Two of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outclass the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are lots of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the key action regarding Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN).

Hedge fund activity in Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN)

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 33% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

Of the funds we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the most valuable position in Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN), worth close to $40 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by GAMCO Investors, managed by Mario Gabelli, which held a $2 million position; 0% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Now, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, initiated the biggest position in Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN). Citadel Investment Group had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

How are insiders trading Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN). These stocks are Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE), TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI), Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS), Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE), and Celestica Inc. (USA) (NYSE:CLS). This group of stocks are the members of the printed circuit boards industry and their market caps are closest to RAVN’s market cap.

With the returns shown by our strategies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN) is no exception.

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