Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Drew Industries, Inc. (DW)

Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW) has experienced an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are dozens of metrics shareholders can use to watch their holdings. Some of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Now, let’s take a glance at the recent action encompassing Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW).

How have hedgies been trading Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 60% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the most valuable position in Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW), worth close to $59.2 million, accounting for 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Manatuck Hill Partners, managed by Mark Broach, which held a $5.1 million position; the fund has 0.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital and Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors.

As one would reasonably expect, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, assembled the largest position in Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW). Two Sigma Advisors had 0.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp also made a $0.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new DW positions are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments, and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management.

How are insiders trading Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW). These stocks are Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII), Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO), Federal Signal Corporation (NYSE:FSS), Arctic Cat Inc (NASDAQ:ACAT), and Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO). All of these stocks are in the recreational vehicles industry and their market caps are similar to DW’s market cap.