What’s a Smart Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) Investor To Do?

Is Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) worth your attention right now? Prominent investors are turning less bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets shrunk by 4 in recent months.

In the financial world, there are many methods shareholders can use to analyze the equity markets. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can outperform the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as important, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are many stimuli for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a peek at the recent action surrounding Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ).

How are hedge funds trading Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 47 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -8% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Ralph V. Whitworth’s Relational Investors had the biggest position in Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), worth close to $823.3 million, accounting for 15.8% of its total 13F portfolio. On Relational Investors’s heels is Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, which held a $818.3 million position; 5.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies that are bullish include Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management and David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management.

Since Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) has faced falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few fund managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely at the end of the first quarter. Intriguingly, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies dumped the biggest position of all the hedgies we key on, comprising an estimated $69.9 million in stock., and Peter Rathjens Bruce Clarke and John Campbell of Arrowstreet Capital was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $48.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds at the end of the first quarter.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned research, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) is no exception.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds