Now, according to many of your fellow readers, hedge funds are seen as overrated, old investment tools of an era lost to time. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds trading currently, Insider Monkey aim at the top tier of this group, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total assets, and by paying attention to their highest performing picks, we’ve unearthed a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (see all of our picks from August).
Just as useful, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the financial markets. Obviously, there are a variety of reasons for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s study the newest info surrounding Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH).
How are hedge funds trading Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH)?
At Q2’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -33% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.
When using filings from the hedgies we track, Okumus Fund Management, managed by Ahmet Okumus, holds the most valuable position in Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH). Okumus Fund Management has a $16 million position in the stock, comprising 9.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Nantahala Capital Management, managed by Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack, which held a $4 million position; 0.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Michael Blitzer’s Kingstown Capital Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors.
Due to the fact Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH) has faced a fall in interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, we can see that there exists a select few hedge funds that slashed their full holdings in Q1. At the top of the heap, Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital said goodbye to the largest investment of all the hedgies we monitor, valued at about $1.8 million in stock. Michael Kao’s fund, Akanthos Capital, also cut its stock, about $0.9 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 5 funds in Q1.
Insider trading activity in Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH)
Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
