Is AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ) a good investment?
In the eyes of many traders, hedge funds are seen as delayed, outdated investment vehicles of an era lost to time. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds in operation in present day, Insider Monkey focuses on the masters of this club, around 525 funds. It is widely held that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing stock picks, we’ve deciphered a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as necessary, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are many motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).
Furthermore, we’re going to examine the latest info about AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ).
Hedge fund activity in AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ)
At Q2’s end, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 9% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.
When using filings from the hedgies we track, Peter Franklin Palmedo’s Sun Valley Gold had the biggest position in AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ), worth close to $15.3 million, accounting for 2.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Michael Kaufman of MAK Capital One, with a $10.9 million position; 2.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Krochuk’s GRT Capital Partners.
As one would understandably expect, certain bigger names have jumped into AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ) headfirst. Sun Valley Gold, managed by Peter Franklin Palmedo, initiated the most outsized position in AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ). Sun Valley Gold had 15.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Michael Kaufman’s MAK Capital One also made a $10.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new AUQ investors: Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, and Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Kroch’s GRT Capital Partners.
Insider trading activity in AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ)
Insider buying is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, 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 AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ). These stocks are Harmony Gold Mining Co. (ADR) (NYSE:HMY), IAMGOLD Corporation (USA) (NYSE:IAG), Central GoldTrust (NYSEAMEX:GTU), NovaGold Resources Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:NG), and Allied Nevada Gold Corp. (NYSEAMEX:ANV). This group of stocks are in the gold industry and their market caps are closest to AUQ’s market cap.
