Is General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) a buy here? Money managers are becoming less confident. The number of bullish hedge fund bets retreated by 3 in recent months.
To the average investor, there are plenty of methods shareholders can use to analyze the equity markets. Two of the most underrated 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 top hedge fund managers can outclass the broader indices by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Just as important, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the world of equities. There are lots of reasons for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action surrounding General Electric Company (NYSE:GE).
Hedge fund activity in General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)
At year’s end, a total of 60 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -5% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.
According to our comprehensive database, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the largest position in General Electric Company (NYSE:GE). Fisher Asset Management has a $636 million billion position in the stock, comprising 1.8% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, which held a $261 million position; 0.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds that are bullish include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
Judging by the fact that General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) has faced falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedge funds that slashed their positions entirely at the end of the year. Intriguingly, Sean Cullinan’s Point State Capital cut the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, comprising about $34 million in stock.. Andrew Sandler’s fund, Sandler Capital Management, also cut its stock, about $24 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds at the end of the year.
How have insiders been trading General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)?
Insider buying is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) has seen 2 unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the results exhibited by the aforementioned strategies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
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