This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Curtiss-Wright Corp. (CW)

Is Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW) undervalued? The smart money is turning bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets increased by 1 lately.

To the average investor, there are many metrics shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. Some of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a look at the recent action encompassing Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW).

What have hedge funds been doing with Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 7% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the largest position in Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW), worth close to $90.3 million, comprising 0.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On GAMCO Investors’s heels is Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, which held a $35.3 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, Alexander Roepers’s Atlantic Investment Management and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Ellington, managed by Mike Vranos, assembled the most outsized position in Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW). Ellington had 0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new CW position is David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments.

How are insiders trading Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time frame, Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW). These stocks are Coherent, Inc. (NASDAQ:COHR), Geospace Technologies Corp (NASDAQ:GEOS), Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI), Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX), and Ixia (NASDAQ:XXIA). All of these stocks are in the scientific & technical instruments industry and their market caps match CW’s market cap.