Should Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC) investors track the following data?
To many of your fellow readers, hedge funds are perceived as overrated, outdated financial tools of a period lost to current times. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds in operation currently, Insider Monkey aim at the upper echelon of this club, around 525 funds. It is widely held that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by tracking their highest performing investments, we’ve found a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as useful, bullish insider trading activity is another way to analyze the world of equities. Obviously, there are plenty of stimuli for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).
Thus, we’re going to analyze the newest info for Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC).
How are hedge funds trading Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 67% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.
As industrywide interest increased, particular hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, created the most valuable position in Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC). Adage Capital Management had 16.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $13.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC)?
Insider buying made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC) has experienced 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 Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC). These stocks are PNM Resources, Inc. (NYSE:PNM), ALLETE Inc (NYSE:ALE), UGI Corp (NYSE:UGI), Westar Energy Inc (NYSE:WR), and TransAlta Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TAC). All of these stocks are in the diversified utilities industry and their market caps match VVC’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| PNM Resources, Inc. (NYSE:PNM) | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| ALLETE Inc (NYSE:ALE) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| UGI Corp (NYSE:UGI) | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| Westar Energy Inc (NYSE:WR) | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| TransAlta Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TAC) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns demonstrated by the previously mentioned strategies, average investors must always track hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC) is no exception.
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This Metric Says You Are Smart to Sell Vectren Corporation (VVC)
