Is Rogers Corporation (ROG) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds? – Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (CTB), Titan International Inc (TWI)

Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund interest recently.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are many metrics investors can use to watch stocks. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can outclass the market by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the financial markets. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if you understand what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at the recent action regarding Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG).

What does the smart money think about Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 11% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Daruma Asset Management, managed by Mariko Gordon, holds the biggest position in Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG). Daruma Asset Management has a $46.3 million position in the stock, comprising 2.7% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $19 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include “Richard S. Meisenberg’s ACK Asset Management, Ken Grossman and Glen Schneider’s SG Capital Management and Carl Tiedemann and Michael Tiedemann’s TIG Advisors.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. SG Capital Management, managed by Ken Grossman and Glen Schneider, created the most valuable position in Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG). SG Capital Management had 6.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

What have insiders been doing with Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG) has seen 2 unique insiders purchasing, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG). These stocks are AEP Industries (NASDAQ:AEPI), Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE:CTB), Myers Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MYE), Titan International Inc (NYSE:TWI), and Tredegar Corporation (NYSE:TG). This group of stocks are in the rubber & plastics industry and their market caps are similar to ROG’s market cap.

With the results shown by our tactics, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG) is an important part of this process.

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