Is Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS) a healthy stock for your portfolio? Prominent investors are becoming less confident. The number of long hedge fund positions went down by 5 in recent months.
In today’s marketplace, there are tons of metrics investors can use to watch publicly traded companies. Some of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can beat the S&P 500 by a significant amount (see just how much).
Just as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the marketplace. Obviously, there are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a glance at the latest action regarding Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS).
What does the smart money think about Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -28% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.
According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS). Royce & Associates has a $367.8 million position in the stock, comprising 1.1% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Sean Cullinan of Point State Capital, with a $44.4 million position; 0.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers with similar optimism include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
Judging by the fact that Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS) has faced a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there was a specific group of fund managers that decided to sell off their full holdings at the end of the first quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management said goodbye to the biggest stake of all the hedgies we monitor, totaling about $11.5 million in stock.. Daniel S. Och’s fund, OZ Management, also sold off its stock, about $9.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 5 funds at the end of the first quarter.
What have insiders been doing with Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS). These stocks are Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP), Inter Parfums, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPAR), Energizer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ENR), Elizabeth Arden, Inc. (NASDAQ:RDEN), and Revlon Inc (NYSE:REV). All of these stocks are in the personal products industry and their market caps are closest to NUS’s market cap.
