Here is What Hedge Funds Think About KB Financial Group, Inc. (ADR) (KB)

KB Financial Group, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:KB) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. KB shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. There were 4 hedge funds in our database with KB holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be worthless, old investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the masters of this group, close to 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group controls the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by tracking their highest performing stock picks, we have figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have beaten the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see the details here).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of stimuli for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action surrounding KB Financial Group, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:KB).

Hedge fund activity in KB Financial Group, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:KB)

In preparation for this year, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 150% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Dreman Value Management, managed by David Dreman, holds the largest position in KB Financial Group, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:KB). Dreman Value Management has a $4.8 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $2.9 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments.

Consequently, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, initiated the most outsized position in KB Financial Group, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:KB). Renaissance Technologies had 2.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also initiated a $2.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about KB Financial Group, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:KB)?

Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, KB Financial Group, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:KB) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to KB Financial Group, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:KB). These stocks are ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN), Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:SHG), Banco de Chile (ADR) (NYSE:BCH), and Bancolombia S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:CIB). All of these stocks are in the foreign regional banks industry and their market caps match KB’s market cap.

With the returns exhibited by the aforementioned research, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and KB Financial Group, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:KB) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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