Is Blount International, Inc. (NYSE:BLT) an attractive investment right now? Prominent investors are taking a pessimistic view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets went down by 1 lately.
If you’d ask most traders, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the moguls of this club, around 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by monitoring their best picks, we have figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the marketplace. Obviously, there are many motivations for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, it’s important to take a gander at the latest action regarding Blount International, Inc. (NYSE:BLT).
Hedge fund activity in Blount International, Inc. (NYSE:BLT)
Heading into Q2, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -7% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.
Due to the fact that Blount International, Inc. (NYSE:BLT) has faced falling interest from the smart money, logic holds that there were a few money managers who sold off their positions entirely last quarter. Interestingly, Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management dumped the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we track, worth an estimated $11.9 million in stock., and Jeffrey Gates of Gates Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $7.7 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds last quarter.
Insider trading activity in Blount International, Inc. (NYSE:BLT)
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, Blount International, Inc. (NYSE:BLT) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Blount International, Inc. (NYSE:BLT). These stocks are Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ:HDNG), NN, Inc. (NASDAQ:NNBR), Proto Labs Inc (NYSE:PRLB), RBC Bearings Incorporated (NASDAQ:ROLL), and Kaydon Corporation (NYSE:KDN). This group of stocks are the members of the machine tools & accessories industry and their market caps are similar to BLT’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ:HDNG) | 7 | 0 | 2 |
| NN, Inc. (NASDAQ:NNBR) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Proto Labs Inc (NYSE:PRLB) | 10 | 1 | 13 |
| RBC Bearings Incorporated (NASDAQ:ROLL) | 5 | 0 | 3 |
| Kaydon Corporation (NYSE:KDN) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned studies, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Blount International, Inc. (NYSE:BLT) is no exception.
