Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) investors: listen up.
At the moment, there are a multitude of indicators market participants can use to track publicly traded companies. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can beat the S&P 500 by a healthy amount (see just how much).
Equally as necessary, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are plenty of incentives for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if investors understand where to look (learn more here).
What’s more, it’s important to examine the latest info surrounding Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF).
How are hedge funds trading Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF)?
At Q2’s end, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -22% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF). Royce & Associates has a $141.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.4% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, which held a $34.7 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Millennium Management Subsidiary’s Green Arrow Capital Management.
Judging by the fact that Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) has faced declining interest from the top-tier hedge fund industry, logic holds that there was a specific group of money managers who sold off their positions entirely in Q1. Interestingly, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies we monitor, totaling an estimated $1.4 million in stock, and Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment Corp was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.6 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in Q1.
What have insiders been doing with Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF)?
Insider buying is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero 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 Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF). These stocks are Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY), Knight Capital Group Inc. (NYSE:KCG), Investment Technology Group (NYSE:ITG), Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE:RJF), and Greenhill & Co., Inc. (NYSE:GHL). This group of stocks are in the investment brokerage – regional industry and their market caps match SF’s market cap.
