Is Denny’s Corporation (DENN) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Is Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN) going to take off soon? The best stock pickers are becoming hopeful. The number of long hedge fund positions inched up by 3 lately.

In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of gauges investors can use to analyze Mr. Market. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can outpace the market by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as integral, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the key action encompassing Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN).

What have hedge funds been doing with Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 30% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Peter S. Park’s Park West Asset Management had the biggest position in Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN), worth close to $14.2 million, comprising 1.6% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Daniel Lewis of Orange Capital, with a $10.8 million position; 1.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors and Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments.

Now, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Orange Capital, managed by Daniel Lewis, established the largest position in Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN). Orange Capital had 10.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments also initiated a $2.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new DENN positions are Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, and Mike Vranos’s Ellington.

How are insiders trading Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN). These stocks are Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ:FRGI), Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE:RT), CEC Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:CEC), Chuy’s Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CHUY), and Biglari Holdings Inc (NYSE:BH). All of these stocks are in the restaurants industry and their market caps resemble DENN’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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