Is Waste Connections, Inc. (WCN) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late.

In today’s marketplace, there are many metrics investors can use to track their holdings. 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 fund managers can trounce the broader indices by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are lots of reasons for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if you know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action regarding Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN).

How are hedge funds trading Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 9% from the first quarter.

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Ascend Capital, managed by Malcolm Fairbairn, initiated the biggest position in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN). Ascend Capital had 8.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also initiated a $6.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

What have insiders been doing with Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN)?

Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 12 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN). These stocks are Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL), Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd (USA) (NYSE:BIN), Covanta Holding Corporation (NYSE:CVA), Veolia Environnement SA (ADR) (NYSE:VE), and Clean Harbors Inc (NYSE:CLH). This group of stocks are the members of the waste management industry and their market caps are similar to WCN’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) is an important part of this process.

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