Should You Avoid Silgan Holdings Inc. (SLGN)?

Is Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN) a good investment?

In the financial world, there are many metrics investors can use to watch stocks. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a solid amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of stimuli for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if shareholders understand where to look (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s examine the latest info about Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN).

How are hedge funds trading Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -20% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Amy Minella’s Cardinal Capital had the most valuable position in Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN), worth close to $61.2 million, accounting for 3.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $8.3 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners and Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Krochuk’s GRT Capital Partners.

Since Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN) has experienced dropping sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few hedgies who were dropping their full holdings at the end of the second quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management sold off the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, worth an estimated $2.7 million in stock. Mike Vranos’s fund, Ellington, also cut its stock, about $1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds at the end of the second quarter.

Insider trading activity in Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN)

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN). These stocks are Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS), AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR), Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF), Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON), and Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE:GPK). All of these stocks are in the packaging & containers industry and their market caps are closest to SLGN’s market cap.