Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Unum Group (UNM) Anymore

Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) investors should be aware of a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently.

At the moment, there are plenty of gauges market participants can use to watch their holdings. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can trounce the broader indices by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of reasons for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a look at the latest action regarding Unum Group (NYSE:UNM).

Hedge fund activity in Unum Group (NYSE:UNM)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -25% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group had the biggest position in Unum Group (NYSE:UNM), worth close to $77.1 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, which held a $61.8 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Michael Messner’s Seminole Capital (Investment Mgmt), D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management.

Since Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of funds who were dropping their positions entirely in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies dumped the largest stake of the 450+ funds we monitor, totaling close to $26.9 million in stock.. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s fund, Arrowstreet Capital, also dumped its stock, about $6.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 5 funds in Q1.

What have insiders been doing with Unum Group (NYSE:UNM)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time period, Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Unum Group (NYSE:UNM). These stocks are PICO Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PICO), AFLAC Incorporated (NYSE:AFL), CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO), and Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ). This group of stocks are in the accident & health insurance industry and their market caps are closest to UNM’s market cap.

With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s research, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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