Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE:RT) investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately.
To the average investor, there are tons of gauges shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can outperform the market by a superb amount (see just how much).
Equally as important, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the stock market universe. There are plenty of stimuli for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).
With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action regarding Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE:RT).
What does the smart money think about Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE:RT)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -27% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital had the biggest position in Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE:RT), worth close to $31.2 million, accounting for 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Matthew Drapkin and Steven R. Becker of Becker Drapkin Management, with a $10.7 million position; the fund has 6.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that are bullish include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Due to the fact that Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE:RT) has witnessed a declination in interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of fund managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely heading into Q2. Interestingly, Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management dumped the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, totaling about $1.6 million in stock.. Zeke Ashton’s fund, Centaur Capital Partners, also cut its stock, about $1.5 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds heading into Q2.
How have insiders been trading Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE:RT)?
Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE:RT) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 6 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 Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE:RT). These stocks are Ignite Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ:IRG), Chuy’s Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CHUY), Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN), Biglari Holdings Inc (NYSE:BH), and Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ:DFRG). This group of stocks are the members of the restaurants industry and their market caps are similar to RT’s market cap.
