Is Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC) a great investment right now? Money managers are reducing their bets on the stock. The number of long hedge fund bets went down by 1 lately.
According to most traders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the bigwigs of this club, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by monitoring their best picks, we have determined a few investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action surrounding Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC).
How have hedgies been trading Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC)?
Heading into Q2, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -6% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.
According to our comprehensive database, Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management had the largest position in Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC), worth close to $208.8 million, comprising 4.5% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management, with a $48.2 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, Peter Franklin Palmedo’s Sun Valley Gold and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Judging by the fact that Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC) has experienced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there was a specific group of money managers that elected to cut their full holdings in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Michael Kaufman’s MAK Capital One dropped the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, worth an estimated $35.8 million in stock.. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s fund, Arrowstreet Capital, also sold off its stock, about $9.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds in Q1.
Insider trading activity in Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC)
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time frame, Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC). These stocks are Arch Coal Inc (NYSE:ACI), U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLCA), Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. (NYSE:ANR), Walter Energy, Inc. (NYSE:WLT), and HudBay Minerals Inc Ord Shs (NYSE:HBM). This group of stocks are in the industrial metals & minerals industry and their market caps are closest to SWC’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Arch Coal Inc (NYSE:ACI) | 20 | 1 | 0 |
| U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLCA) | 14 | 0 | 6 |
| Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. (NYSE:ANR) | 22 | 0 | 0 |
| Walter Energy, Inc. (NYSE:WLT) | 26 | 11 | 0 |
| HudBay Minerals Inc Ord Shs (NYSE:HBM) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s tactics, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
