Is Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (PUK) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Is Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK) a cheap stock to buy now? The best stock pickers are reducing their bets on the stock. The number of long hedge fund positions dropped by 2 lately.

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of methods shareholders can use to monitor the equity markets. Two of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can beat the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as important, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of motivations for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a look at the key action encompassing Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK).

How are hedge funds trading Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -29% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital had the biggest position in Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK), worth close to $10.7 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management, with a $7 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management.

Seeing as Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK) has witnessed bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers who sold off their full holdings heading into Q2. At the top of the heap, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management dropped the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at close to $3 million in stock.. Steven Cohen’s fund, SAC Capital Advisors, also sold off its stock, about $0.4 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds heading into Q2.

How have insiders been trading Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK). These stocks are China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LFC), Manulife Financial Corporation (USA) (NYSE:MFC), Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU), ING Groep N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:ING), and Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET). This group of stocks belong to the life insurance industry and their market caps are closest to PUK’s market cap.

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s research, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK) is an important part of this process.

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