Is J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) a buy, sell, or hold? Prominent investors are taking an optimistic view. The number of bullish hedge fund positions improved by 1 lately.
In today’s marketplace, there are tons of methods market participants can use to track Mr. Market. A duo 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 best fund managers can beat the market by a very impressive amount (see just how much).
Just as key, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if you understand what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the key action regarding J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP).
What does the smart money think about J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP)?
At year’s end, a total of 27 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 4% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square had the largest position in J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), worth close to $770 million billion, accounting for 8.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Glenview Capital, managed by Larry Robbins, which held a $144 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management, and Robert Jaffe’s Force Capital.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, established the biggest position in J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP). Pzena Investment Management had 19 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. also initiated a $4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new JCP positions are Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Daniel Arbess’s Perella Weinberg Partners.
How have insiders been trading J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP)?
Bullish insider trading is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time period, J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the results exhibited by the aforementioned research, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) applies perfectly to this mantra.
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