Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL) was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. POOL shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund interest of late. There were 14 hedge funds in our database with POOL holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of methods investors can use to monitor publicly traded companies. A couple of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can beat the broader indices by a solid margin (see just how much).
Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of reasons for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if shareholders understand where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a look at the latest action regarding Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL).
What does the smart money think about Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL)?
In preparation for this quarter, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -7% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.
Of the funds we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the most valuable position in Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL), worth close to $99.5 million, accounting for 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management, with a $32.7 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
Judging by the fact that Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL) has experienced a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of funds that elected to cut their positions entirely at the end of the first quarter. Intriguingly, Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP cut the biggest investment of all the hedgies we watch, comprising about $1.6 million in stock.. Steven Cohen’s fund, SAC Capital Advisors, also dumped its stock, about $0.6 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds at the end of the first quarter.
What have insiders been doing with Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL). These stocks are Escalade, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESCA), Nautilus, Inc. (NYSE:NLS), Johnson Outdoors Inc. (NASDAQ:JOUT), Black Diamond Inc (NASDAQ:BDE), and Callaway Golf Co (NYSE:ELY). This group of stocks belong to the sporting goods industry and their market caps are closest to POOL’s market cap.
