Here is What Hedge Funds Think About HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (HBC)

Is HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HBC) a good investment?

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of metrics shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. Two of the most underrated 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 top hedge fund managers can beat the market by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as crucial, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to look at the world of equities. There are a number of incentives for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s analyze the newest info for HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HBC).

Hedge fund activity in HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HBC)

Heading into Q3, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 7% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the biggest position in HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HBC). Fisher Asset Management has a $642.2 million position in the stock, comprising 1.7% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $52.2 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management.

Consequently, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, created the largest position in HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HBC). Fisher Asset Management had 642.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $52.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new HBC investors: Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management.

How are insiders trading HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HBC)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time period, HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HBC) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HBC). These stocks are Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS), UBS AG (USA) (NYSE:UBS), Banco Santander, S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:SAN), Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) (NYSE:ITUB), and Westpac Banking Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:WBK). This group of stocks are in the foreign money center banks industry and their market caps match HBC’s market cap.

Using the results demonstrated by our tactics, average investors should always track hedge fund and insider trading activity, and HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HBC) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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