Is Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW) a buy?
In the financial world, there are many methods investors can use to track publicly traded companies. Some of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).
Equally as necessary, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of stimuli for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if investors understand where to look (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s analyze the recent info for Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW).
Hedge fund activity in Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW)
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -6% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW), worth close to $25.5 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Sprott Asset Management, managed by Eric Sprott, which held a $19.5 million position; 2.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
As Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW) has faced bearish sentiment from the smart money’s best and brightest, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management said goodbye to the biggest stake of all the hedgies we track, comprising an estimated $50.5 million in stock. Robert B. Gillam’s fund, McKinley Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $11.4 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds heading into Q2.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW)?
Insider buying made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW). These stocks are Silver Standard Resources Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:SSRI), Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL), First Majestic Silver Corp (NYSE:AG), Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation (NYSE:CDE), and Pan American Silver Corp. (USA) (NASDAQ:PAAS). This group of stocks belong to the silver industry and their market caps are similar to SLW’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Silver Standard Resources Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:SSRI) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| First Majestic Silver Corp (NYSE:AG) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation (NYSE:CDE) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Pan American Silver Corp. (USA) (NASDAQ:PAAS) | 16 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns demonstrated by our strategies, average investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW) is no exception.
