The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) has been in the news a lot lately, but here’s one dataset that trumps all of that.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of metrics shareholders can use to track stocks. A duo of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can trounce the market by a superb amount (see just how much).
Just as useful, positive insider trading activity is a second way to look at the marketplace. There are many incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).
What’s more, it’s important to discuss the recent info for The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD).
What have hedge funds been doing with The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD)?
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 53 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 6% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.
According to our 13F database, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the biggest position in The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD), worth close to $626.2 million, accounting for 1.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, which held a $201.4 million position; 0.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Natixis Global Asset Management’s Harris Associates, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors and Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital.
As one would understandably expect, certain money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, initiated the most outsized position in The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD). Fisher Asset Management had 626.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management also initiated a $201.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new HD positions are Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors, Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
What have insiders been doing with The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD)?
Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 6 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 The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD). These stocks are Orchard Supply Hardware Stores Corp (NASDAQ:OSH), Builders FirstSource, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLDR), Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc (NYSE:LL), , and Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW). This group of stocks are in the home improvement stores industry and their market caps are similar to HD’s market cap.
