Praxair, Inc. (PX): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

Is Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX) a buy here? The best stock pickers are buying. The number of long hedge fund positions rose by 2 in recent months.

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of indicators investors can use to watch their holdings. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are many stimuli for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if you know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a look at the key action regarding Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX).

Hedge fund activity in Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 26 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 8% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management had the largest position in Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX), worth close to $590.5 million, comprising 3.5% of its total 13F portfolio. On Eagle Capital Management’s heels is Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, which held a $69.6 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Edgar Wachenheim’s Greenhaven Associates, Bernard Horn’s Polaris Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Now, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, established the largest position in Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX). Balyasny Asset Management had 27.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also made a $26.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new PX positions are Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX)?

Insider buying is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX). These stocks are Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN), Minerals Technologies Inc (NYSE:MTX), Tronox Ltd (NYSE:TROX), and Axiall Corp (NYSE:AXLL). This group of stocks belong to the synthetics industry and their market caps resemble PX’s market cap.