Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Brady Corp (BRC)

Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC) was in 14 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. BRC has seen an increase in hedge fund interest recently. There were 13 hedge funds in our database with BRC positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the eyes of most traders, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at the moment, we choose to focus on the moguls of this club, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by monitoring their best investments, we have come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).

Just as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if you know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a look at the key action encompassing Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC).

How are hedge funds trading Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 8% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC). Royce & Associates has a $131.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.4% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by John W. Rogers of Ariel Investments, with a $74.1 million position; 1.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Consequently, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, established the most outsized position in Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC). Millennium Management had 0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also made a $0.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

Insider trading activity in Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC)

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC). These stocks are Intralinks Holdings Inc (NYSE:IL), KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW), AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA), Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT), and Sourcefire, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIRE). All of these stocks are in the security software & services industry and their market caps are closest to BRC’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s studies, everyday investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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