Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (IBN)?

ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN) was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. IBN has seen a decrease in hedge fund interest of late. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with IBN holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are dozens of methods investors can use to analyze Mr. Market. A couple of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can beat their index-focused peers by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the financial markets. Obviously, there are many stimuli for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a glance at the key action surrounding ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN).

How have hedgies been trading ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -19% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the most valuable position in ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN). AQR Capital Management has a $43.3 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. On AQR Capital Management’s heels is Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, which held a $14.4 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Judging by the fact that ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN) has witnessed a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that decided to sell off their full holdings last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global dumped the biggest stake of all the hedgies we track, worth close to $52.2 million in stock.. Stanley Druckenmiller’s fund, Duquesne Capital, also cut its stock, about $9.9 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds last quarter.

How have insiders been trading ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN). These stocks are Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBVA), Bancolombia S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:CIB), Banco de Chile (ADR) (NYSE:BCH), Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB), and Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:SHG). This group of stocks are the members of the foreign regional banks industry and their market caps match IBN’s market cap.