Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD)

Should Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) investors track the following data?

To the average investor, there are many methods shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. Two of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, positive insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of motivations for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s important to analyze the newest info about Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD).

How have hedgies been trading Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -26% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

According to our 13F database, Pershing Square, managed by Bill Ackman, holds the biggest position in Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD). Pershing Square has a $924.5 million position in the stock, comprising 8.4% of its 13F portfolio. On Pershing Square’s heels is Greenhaven Associates, managed by Edgar Wachenheim, which held a $347.5 million position; the fund has 9.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Because Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) has witnessed dropping sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there were a few hedgies that decided to sell off their positions entirely in Q1. Intriguingly, Brett Barakett’s Tremblant Capital dropped the largest investment of all the hedgies we watch, worth an estimated $23.5 million in stock, and Israel Englander of Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $11 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 6 funds in Q1.

Insider trading activity in Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD)

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD). These stocks are E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD), FMC Corp (NYSE:FMC), The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN), and Sociedad Quimica y Minera (ADR) (NYSE:SQM). This group of stocks are the members of the chemicals – major diversified industry and their market caps are similar to APD’s market cap.

Using the returns explained by Insider Monkey’s tactics, average investors should always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) is no exception.

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