Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Sealed Air Corp (SEE)

In the eyes of many market players, hedge funds are perceived as bloated, outdated financial tools of a period lost to current times. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open currently, this site aim at the upper echelon of this group, close to 525 funds. It is widely held that this group oversees most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their highest quality picks, we’ve unearthed a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outperformed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to look at the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of incentives for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Thus, we’re going to examine the recent info about Sealed Air Corp (NYSE:SEE).

Hedge fund activity in Sealed Air Corp (NYSE:SEE)

Heading into Q3, a total of 37 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 19% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

According to our 13F database, David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management had the most valuable position in Sealed Air Corp (NYSE:SEE), worth close to $132.2 million, accounting for 1.7% of its total 13F portfolio. On Iridian Asset Management’s heels is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $44.9 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Glenn J. Krevlin’s Glenhill Advisors and Matt McLennan’s First Eagle Investment Management.

With a general bullishness amongst the titans, specific money managers have jumped into Sealed Air Corp (NYSE:SEE) headfirst. Iridian Asset Management, managed by David Cohen and Harold Levy, assembled the most valuable position in Sealed Air Corp (NYSE:SEE). Iridian Asset Management had 132.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $44.9 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SEE investors: D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Glenn J. Krevlin’s Glenhill Advisors, and Matt McLennan’s First Eagle Investment Management.

What have insiders been doing with Sealed Air Corp (NYSE:SEE)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, Sealed Air Corp (NYSE:SEE) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Sealed Air Corp (NYSE:SEE). These stocks are AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR), Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS), Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE:OI), Packaging Corp Of America (NYSE:PKG), and Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE:TUP). This group of stocks are in the packaging & containers industry and their market caps match SEE’s market cap.

Using the returns demonstrated by our analyses, average investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Sealed Air Corp (NYSE:SEE) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

Discover how hedge fund piggybacking can benefit you