Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW) was in 18 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. MTW investors should pay attention to a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. There were 19 hedge funds in our database with MTW positions at the end of the previous quarter.
If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, outdated investment tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we hone in on the aristocrats of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees most of the smart money’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their best picks, we have figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are lots of stimuli for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors know where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the recent action encompassing Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW).
How have hedgies been trading Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW)?
In preparation for this year, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -5% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.
When looking at the hedgies we track, James Dinan’s York Capital Management had the largest position in Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW), worth close to $87.8 million, comprising 2.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On York Capital Management’s heels is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $46.6 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Ralph V. Whitworth’s Relational Investors, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital.
Seeing as Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW) has witnessed a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of hedge funds that elected to cut their full holdings in Q4. Interestingly, Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital cut the biggest position of all the hedgies we monitor, comprising about $13.8 million in stock.. Michael Novogratz’s fund, Fortress Investment Group, also cut its stock, about $3.1 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds in Q4.
How have insiders been trading Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW)?
Insider buying is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW). These stocks are Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE), Lindsay Corporation (NYSE:LNN), Joy Global Inc. (NYSE:JOY), AGCO Corporation (NYSE:AGCO), and Terex Corporation (NYSE:TEX). This group of stocks belong to the farm & construction machinery industry and their market caps resemble MTW’s market cap.
