Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) was in 17 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. VMC has experienced a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. There were 20 hedge funds in our database with VMC positions at the end of the previous quarter.
If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, old investment vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we choose to focus on the leaders of this club, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by paying attention to their highest performing picks, we have found a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).
Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a number of motivations for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a gander at the key action encompassing Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC).
Hedge fund activity in Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC)
In preparation for this quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -15% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.
According to our comprehensive database, Mason Hawkins’s Southeastern Asset Management had the largest position in Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC), worth close to $334.4 million, comprising 1.5% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is First Eagle Investment Management, managed by Jean-Marie Eveillard, which held a $280.5 million position; the fund has 0.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include James Dinan’s York Capital Management, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Due to the fact that Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) has faced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there were a few hedge funds who were dropping their entire stakes last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital sold off the biggest investment of all the hedgies we watch, valued at close to $24.3 million in stock.. Andrew Sandler’s fund, Sandler Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $4.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds last quarter.
How have insiders been trading Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC). These stocks are Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST), Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE:AWI), Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM), Owens Corning (NYSE:OC), and Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS). All of these stocks are in the general building materials industry and their market caps are similar to VMC’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) | 15 | 5 | 4 |
| Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE:AWI) | 20 | 0 | 4 |
| Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) | 25 | 0 | 9 |
| Owens Corning (NYSE:OC) | 47 | 0 | 5 |
| Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS) | 30 | 2 | 7 |
With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s strategies, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
