Is Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) ready to rally soon? The best stock pickers are reducing their bets on the stock. The number of long hedge fund bets stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience
In the financial world, there are dozens of methods market participants can use to analyze stocks. A couple of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a significant margin (see just how much).
Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of stimuli for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
Now, let’s take a peek at the recent action surrounding Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC).
What does the smart money think about Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Basswood Capital, managed by Matthew Lindenbaum, holds the biggest position in Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC). Basswood Capital has a $32.9 million position in the stock, comprising 2.5% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Donald Chiboucis of Columbus Circle Investors, with a $28 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish include Amy Minella’s Cardinal Capital, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.
Seeing as Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) has experienced a declination in interest from the smart money, we can see that there is a sect of hedge funds that slashed their full holdings in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management cut the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at close to $0.5 million in stock.. Steven Cohen’s fund, SAC Capital Advisors, also dumped its stock, about $0.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Insider trading activity in Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC)
Insider buying is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) has experienced 2 unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC). These stocks are A. O. Smith Corporation (NYSE:AOS), Franklin Electric Co. (NASDAQ:FELE), General Cable Corporation (NYSE:BGC), Woodward Inc (NASDAQ:WWD), and EnerSys (NYSE:ENS). All of these stocks are in the industrial electrical equipment industry and their market caps are closest to BDC’s market cap.
