Here is What Hedge Funds Think About AptarGroup, Inc. (ATR) – Packaging Corp Of America (PKG), Owens-Illinois Inc (OI)

AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. ATR investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with ATR holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are seen as slow, old investment tools of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey look at the bigwigs of this club, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by watching their highest performing equity investments, we have found a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the stock market universe. There are plenty of motivations for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, let’s take a look at the recent action surrounding AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR).

What have hedge funds been doing with AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 80% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management had the most valuable position in AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR), worth close to $71 million, accounting for 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. On Adage Capital Management’s heels is Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which held a $16 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, John Fichthorn’s Dialectic Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Dialectic Capital Management, managed by John Fichthorn, assembled the most outsized position in AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR). Dialectic Capital Management had 2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ATR investors: D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp, and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

What have insiders been doing with AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR). These stocks are Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE:TUP), Packaging Corp Of America (NYSE:PKG), Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE:OI), Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS), and Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON). This group of stocks are the members of the packaging & containers industry and their market caps are closest to ATR’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned studies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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