Insider activity in Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) shows that in June, 500,000 shares were sold by CEO Howard Schultz, which occurred after he had exercised his options. There were no major acquisitions of shares by insiders this year. Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN)’s track of insider actions is a bit more diverse in 2015. Following a February acquisition of 969,579 shares by various top-executives, several of them, including CEO Nigel Travis, decided to exercise their options and sell 290,898 shares on the open market by the end of April.
Adding to the buying and selling of shares by insiders, the activity of hedge funds, covered by our extensive database, was pretty much mixed as of March 31. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group added 83% to its position in Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN), becoming the top shareholder in our database with 1.91 million shares valued at $90.91 million. Eashwar Krishnan, managing Tybourne Capital Management, initiated a $78.43 million position in the stock, owning some 1.65 million shares. His bet on Dunkin Brands now accounts for a substantial 7.3% position in his public equity portfolio. On the contrary to what has been done by those colleagues, the third-largest shareholder, Brett Barakett’s Tremblant Capital, trimmed its position by 55%, leaving 1.15 million shares valued at $54.63 million in its portfolio. The other hedge funds in the list of top 10 shareholders were positive on the stock during the first three months of the year.
As for Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), its largest shareholder in our database was Donald Chiboucis’ Columbus Circle Investors, which reduced its holdings by 26%, leaving it with 1.97 million shares valued at $186.33 million. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management slightly increased its ownership, by 4%, bringing its total position to 1.13 million shares valued at $107.48 million. In general the top 10 owners showed a wild diversity of dynamics in terms of positions’ adjustments: from 116% increases to 66% cuts. Overall, at the end of March, 20 funds in our database held shares of Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN), valued at $424.99 million, $91.40 million more than at the end of 2014. As for Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), 54 funds owned this company after the first quarter, having invested $962.13 million, which was $124.28 million less than three months before, despite shares appreciating during the month by about 15%.
Based on that, we conclude that overall, funds’ sentiment is currently more bullish on Dunkin Brands. The final decision about what stock to pursue depends on the type of investor. If you like to see rapid growth and a strong balance sheet, then Sturbucks is a good choice. If you prefer relative strength and higher profitability, it is high time to jump into Dunkin Brands’ stock, alongside other prominent investors and their funds.
Winner: Draw
Disclosure: None
