Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Graco Inc. (GGG)

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently.

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of methods investors can use to analyze stocks. Two of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Just as important, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. Obviously, there are many motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action surrounding Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG).

How have hedgies been trading Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the biggest position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG), worth close to $56.4 million, accounting for 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $47.4 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Since Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) has faced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there were a few money managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely at the end of the first quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital dropped the largest position of all the hedgies we monitor, comprising an estimated $38.7 million in stock.. Bruce Kovner’s fund, Caxton Associates LP, also sold off its stock, about $2.7 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 12 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG). These stocks are Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII), Crane Co. (NYSE:CR), Babcock & Wilcox Co (NYSE:BWC), SPX Corporation (NYSE:SPW), and Gardner Denver, Inc. (NYSE:GDI). All of these stocks are in the diversified machinery industry and their market caps match GGG’s market cap.