Hedge Funds Are Crazy About US Ecology Inc. (ECOL)

US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. ECOL has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest lately. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with ECOL positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In today’s marketplace, there are many metrics market participants can use to monitor their holdings. A couple of the most under-the-radar 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 very impressive amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are plenty of reasons for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a look at the recent action regarding US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL).

What have hedge funds been doing with US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL)?

At year’s end, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL), worth close to $2 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, established the largest position in US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL). Millennium Management had 0.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.

How have insiders been trading US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL). These stocks are Darling International Inc. (NYSE:DAR), Casella Waste Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST), TRC Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TRR), Heckmann Corporation (NYSE:HEK), and EnergySolutions, Inc. (NYSE:ES). This group of stocks belong to the waste management industry and their market caps match ECOL’s market cap.

With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s research, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL) is no exception.

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