Prudential Financial Inc (PRU): Hedge Funds and Insiders Are Bullish, What Should You Do?

Is Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) the right investment to pursue these days? Hedge funds are becoming more confident. The number of long hedge fund positions improved by 1 recently.

At the moment, there are tons of indicators market participants can use to track publicly traded companies. Two of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a solid margin (see just how much).

Just as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are a number of motivations for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action regarding Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU).

How have hedgies been trading Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 34 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 3% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management had the largest position in Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU), worth close to $215.9 million, accounting for 2.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Diamond Hill Capital, managed by Ric Dillon, which held a $190.4 million position; 2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Jeffrey Tannenbaum’s Fir Tree and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Discovery Capital Management, managed by Rob Citrone, established the biggest position in Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU). Discovery Capital Management had 215.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jeffrey Tannenbaum’s Fir Tree also initiated a $96.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP, Joe DiMenna’s ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS, and Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU). These stocks are Sun Life Financial Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SLF), Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET), Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK), Manulife Financial Corporation (USA) (NYSE:MFC), and ING Groep N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:ING). This group of stocks are in the life insurance industry and their market caps are similar to PRU’s market cap.