Is Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (NYSE:AGM) ready to raly soon? Prominent investors are buying. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 1 in recent months.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are many methods shareholders can use to analyze publicly traded companies. Some of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see just how much).
Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Obviously, there are lots of reasons for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if you understand where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action surrounding Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (NYSE:AGM).
How are hedge funds trading Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (NYSE:AGM)?
In preparation for this year, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 20% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors had the most valuable position in Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (NYSE:AGM), worth close to $3.1 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $2.2 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, created the most outsized position in Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (NYSE:AGM). Millennium Management had 0.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management also made a $0.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter.
How are insiders trading Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (NYSE:AGM)?
Insider buying is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (NYSE:AGM) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 12 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (NYSE:AGM). These stocks are Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:AACC), Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GCA), Consumer Portfolio Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPSS), Regional Management Corp (NYSE:RM), and Medallion Financial Corp (NASDAQ:TAXI). All of these stocks are in the credit services industry and their market caps match AGM’s market cap.
