PolyOne Corporation (POL): Insiders Are Buying, Should You?

PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL) investors should be aware of a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months.

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of indicators shareholders can use to analyze publicly traded companies. A couple 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 elite fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the marketplace. Obviously, there are a variety of stimuli for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action surrounding PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL).

What have hedge funds been doing with PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -8% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Odey Asset Management Group, managed by Crispin Odey, holds the largest position in PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL). Odey Asset Management Group has a $91 million position in the stock, comprising 3.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Fine Capital Partners, managed by Debra Fine, which held a $40.9 million position; the fund has 4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

Since PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL) has experienced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of funds who were dropping their entire stakes at the end of the first quarter. Interestingly, Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management said goodbye to the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, comprising close to $5.4 million in stock.. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s fund, Two Sigma Advisors, also dropped its stock, about $1 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds at the end of the first quarter.

How are insiders trading PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL). These stocks are Sensient Technologies Corporation (NYSE:SXT), HB Fuller Co (NYSE:FUL), Olin Corporation (NYSE:OLN), Chemtura Corp (NYSE:CHMT), and Cabot Corp (NYSE:CBT). This group of stocks belong to the specialty chemicals industry and their market caps resemble POL’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by our strategies, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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