Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Vectren Corporation (VVC)

Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. VVC shareholders have witnessed a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with VVC holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are a multitude of metrics market participants can use to monitor stocks. Two 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 top fund managers can outclass the broader indices by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Equally as important, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of reasons for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if shareholders understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a glance at the latest action surrounding Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC).

What does the smart money think about Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC)?

At year’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -10% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management had the most valuable position in Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC), worth close to $9.8 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is D. E. Shaw of D E Shaw, with a $3.7 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments.

Seeing as Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC) has faced falling interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies who were dropping their full holdings heading into 2013. Interestingly, Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp sold off the biggest position of the 450+ funds we track, valued at about $0.4 million in stock., and John Overdeck and David Siegel of Two Sigma Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.3 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds heading into 2013.

Insider trading activity in Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC)

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC). These stocks are PNM Resources, Inc. (NYSE:PNM), ALLETE Inc (NYSE:ALE), UGI Corp (NYSE:UGI), Westar Energy Inc (NYSE:WR), and TransAlta Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TAC). This group of stocks are the members of the diversified utilities industry and their market caps resemble VVC’s market cap.

With the results shown by the aforementioned strategies, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC) is an important part of this process.

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