If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as slow, outdated financial vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we choose to focus on the masters of this club, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by monitoring their highest performing stock picks, we have unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).
Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are a number of motivations for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if investors know what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, it’s important to take a glance at the key action encompassing Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ).
How are hedge funds trading Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 69 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 8% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Trian Partners, managed by Nelson Peltz, holds the biggest position in Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ). Trian Partners has a $1.2338 billion position in the stock, comprising 26.4% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Mason Hawkins of Southeastern Asset Management, with a $1.2107 billion position; 5.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management, Ralph V. Whitworth’s Relational Investors and Lei Zhang’s Hillhouse Capital Management.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Trian Partners, managed by Nelson Peltz, assembled the biggest position in Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ). Trian Partners had 1.2338 billion invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ralph V. Whitworth’s Relational Investors also made a $329.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square, John Armitage’s Egerton Capital Limited, and Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group.
How are insiders trading Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ)?
Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ) has seen 1 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 Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ). These stocks are Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TR), Cosan Limited (USA) (NYSE:CZZ), and The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY). All of these stocks are in the confectioners industry and their market caps resemble MDLZ’s market cap.
