Should Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp (NYSE:VAC) investors track the following data?
If you were to ask many investors, hedge funds are seen as overrated, outdated financial vehicles of an era lost to time. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds in operation currently, Insider Monkey looks at the moguls of this group, around 525 funds. It is widely held that this group controls 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 outstripped Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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 (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as crucial, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to look at the investments you’re interested in. There are lots of incentives for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).
Furthermore, it’s important to study the recent info about Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp (NYSE:VAC).
How are hedge funds trading Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp (NYSE:VAC)?
At Q2’s end, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.
Due to the fact Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp (NYSE:VAC) has witnessed a fall in interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few fund managers who were dropping their entire stakes in Q1. At the top of the heap, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors cut the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we watch, worth close to $14.8 million in stock, and Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $4.4 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Insider trading activity in Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp (NYSE:VAC)
Insider buying is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp (NYSE:VAC) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, 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 Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp (NYSE:VAC). These stocks are Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD), Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc (NYSE:PNK), Ameristar Casinos, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASCA), Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:MTN), and Caesars Entertainment Corp (NASDAQ:CZR). This group of stocks are in the resorts & casinos industry and their market caps match VAC’s market cap.
