Is it smart to be bullish on Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS)?
If you were to ask many traders, hedge funds are assumed to be overrated, old investment vehicles of an era lost to time. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open today, Insider Monkey looks at the elite of this club, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group oversees the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by tracking their highest performing stock picks, we’ve formulated a few investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per 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 trumped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find the details here).
Just as key, positive insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of stimuli for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).
What’s more, it’s important to discuss the latest info about Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS).
Hedge fund activity in Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS)
Heading into Q3, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 58% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.
Consequently, specific money managers have jumped into Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS) headfirst. Ariel Investments, managed by John W. Rogers, assembled the most outsized position in Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS). Ariel Investments had 159.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management also initiated a $56.6 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new JNS investors: Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management, and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS)?
Insider buying made by high-level executives is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS). These stocks are Gamco Investors Inc. (NYSE:GBL), AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB), Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS), Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS), and Financial Engines Inc (NASDAQ:FNGN). This group of stocks are the members of the asset management industry and their market caps resemble JNS’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Gamco Investors Inc. (NYSE:GBL) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS) | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Financial Engines Inc (NASDAQ:FNGN) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results demonstrated by the previously mentioned research, average investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
