Should You Sell PolyOne Corporation (POL)?

At the moment, there are tons of metrics market participants can use to analyze Mr. Market. A pair of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can beat the broader indices by a solid amount (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the stock market universe. There are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s examine the recent info surrounding PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL).

What have hedge funds been doing with PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Odey Asset Management Group, managed by Crispin Odey, holds the biggest position in PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL). Odey Asset Management Group has a $96.6 million position in the stock, comprising 3.8% of its 13F portfolio. On Odey Asset Management Group’s heels is Fine Capital Partners, managed by Debra Fine, which held a $44.6 million position; the fund has 4.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

Because PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the top-tier hedge fund industry, we can see that there were a few hedge funds that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that Mike Vranos’s Ellington said goodbye to the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, comprising close to $0.4 million in call options.. Matthew Hulsizer’s fund, PEAK6 Capital Management, also cut its call options., about $0.2 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

What have insiders been doing with PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL)?

Insider buying is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL) has seen 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 PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL). These stocks are Sensient Technologies Corporation (NYSE:SXT), HB Fuller Co (NYSE:FUL), Olin Corporation (NYSE:OLN), Chemtura Corp (NYSE:CHMT), and Cabot Corp (NYSE:CBT). This group of stocks belong to the specialty chemicals industry and their market caps are closest to POL’s market cap.

Using the returns shown by the previously mentioned strategies, regular investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and PolyOne Corporation (NYSE:POL) is no exception.

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