Should You Buy Boise Inc. (BZ)?

To many market players, hedge funds are seen as overrated, old financial tools of a period lost to current times. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds trading currently, this site focuses on the leaders of this club, about 525 funds. It is assumed that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total assets, and by keeping an eye on their best investments, we’ve discovered a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Just as necessary, bullish insider trading activity is another way to look at the marketplace. Obviously, there are lots of reasons for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to study the newest info about Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ).

What have hedge funds been doing with Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 21 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 24% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, John Paulson’s Paulson & Co had the largest position in Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ), worth close to $57.7 million, comprising 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Clint Carlson of Carlson Capital, with a $10.5 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds with similar optimism include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.

Now, specific money managers have jumped into Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ) headfirst. Paulson & Co, managed by John Paulson, initiated the most outsized position in Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ). Paulson & Co had 57.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital also made a $10.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BZ positions are Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.

Insider trading activity in Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ)

Insider buying is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ). These stocks are KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. (NYSE:KS), Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. (NYSE:SWM), Clearwater Paper Corp (NYSE:CLW), Buckeye Technologies Inc. (NYSE:BKI), and P.H. Glatfelter Company (NYSE:GLT). This group of stocks are in the paper & paper products industry and their market caps are similar to BZ’s market cap.