Hedge Funds Are Dumping Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (CRESY)

Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY) was in 5 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. CRESY investors should be aware of a decrease in hedge fund sentiment of late. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with CRESY holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

According to most traders, hedge funds are seen as slow, outdated investment tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at present, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the masters of this club, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls most of the smart money’s total capital, and by tracking their top picks, we have discovered a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 outclassed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).

Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a number 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. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action regarding Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY).

What have hedge funds been doing with Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -17% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, holds the most valuable position in Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY). D E Shaw has a $9.1 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On D E Shaw’s heels is Vinik Asset Management, managed by Jeffrey Vinik, which held a $6.8 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Because Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY) has witnessed declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes last quarter. At the top of the heap, Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management said goodbye to the largest position of the 450+ funds we track, totaling an estimated $0.6 million in stock. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds last quarter.

How are insiders trading Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time frame, Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY). These stocks are Adecoagro SA (NYSE:AGRO), Limoneira Company (NASDAQ:LMNR), Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO), Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE:CQB), and Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW). This group of stocks belong to the farm products industry and their market caps resemble CRESY’s market cap.