Should investors be bullish on Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE:COL)?
In the financial world, there are many methods market participants can use to watch the equity markets. A couple of the most underrated 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 elite money managers can outpace the market by a superb amount (see just how much).
Just as key, positive insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to examine the recent info about Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE:COL).
Hedge fund activity in Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE:COL)
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -5% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.
When using filings from the hedgies we track, ValueAct Capital, managed by Jeffrey Ubben, holds the biggest position in Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE:COL). ValueAct Capital has a $708.9 million position in the stock, comprising 7.3% of its 13F portfolio. On ValueAct Capital’s heels is Farallon Capital, managed by Andrew J. M. Spokes, which held a $102.4 million position; the fund has 2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that hold long positions include Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, John Burbank’s Passport Capital and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
Due to the fact Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE:COL) has faced declining interest from the top-tier hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedge funds who sold off their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, Israel Englander’s Catapult Capital Management cut the biggest stake of all the hedgies we key on, comprising an estimated $2.5 million in stock, and Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $1.8 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds last quarter.
How are insiders trading Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE:COL)?
Insider buying made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time frame, Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE:COL) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE:COL). These stocks are Triumph Group Inc (NYSE:TGI), B/E Aerospace Inc (NASDAQ:BEAV), Embraer SA (ADR) (NYSE:ERJ), L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LLL), and TransDigm Group Incorporated (NYSE:TDG). This group of stocks belong to the aerospace/defense products & services industry and their market caps are closest to COL’s market cap.
