Duff & Phelps Corp (NYSE:DUF) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months.
To the average investor, there are a multitude of metrics investors can use to track their holdings. Two of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).
Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the marketplace. Obviously, there are a number of stimuli for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, it’s important to take a gander at the latest action regarding Duff & Phelps Corp (NYSE:DUF).
Hedge fund activity in Duff & Phelps Corp (NYSE:DUF)
Heading into 2013, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.
According to our comprehensive database, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in Duff & Phelps Corp (NYSE:DUF), worth close to $17.6 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Parameter Capital Management, managed by Anil Stevens and Glenn Shapiro, which held a $7.3 million position; the fund has 2.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include John Paulson’s Paulson & Co, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors.
Due to the fact that Duff & Phelps Corp (NYSE:DUF) has experienced falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of fund managers who sold off their positions entirely at the end of the year. At the top of the heap, Matthew Halbower’s Pentwater Capital Management cut the largest investment of all the hedgies we monitor, worth close to $1 million in stock., and Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.8 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
What have insiders been doing with Duff & Phelps Corp (NYSE:DUF)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time frame, Duff & Phelps Corp (NYSE:DUF) 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 Duff & Phelps Corp (NYSE:DUF). These stocks are Triangle Capital Corporation (NYSE:TCAP), Blackrock Kelso Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:BKCC), Pacific Coast Oil Trust (NYSE:ROYT), Encore Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECPG), and Epoch Holding Corp (NASDAQ:EPHC). This group of stocks are in the asset management industry and their market caps match DUF’s market cap.
