You Are Smart to Sell Dunkin Brands Group Inc (DNKN)

Is Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN) a sell?

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of methods market participants can use to analyze their holdings. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can trounce the market by a significant margin (see just how much).

Equally as necessary, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of motivations for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Thus, let’s analyze the recent info for Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN).

How have hedgies been trading Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -10% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Brett Barakett’s Tremblant Capital had the biggest position in Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN), worth close to $63.2 million, comprising 3% of its total 13F portfolio. On Tremblant Capital’s heels is Panayotis Sparaggis of Alkeon Capital Management, with a $48.5 million position; the fund has 1.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management and Roberto Mignone’s Bridger Management.

Because Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN) has faced declining interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, logic holds that there were a few fund managers that slashed their entire stakes heading into Q2. Interestingly, James Dondero’s Highland Capital Management cut the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we track, totaling close to $17.5 million in stock, and Jeffrey Vinik of Vinik Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $15.9 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds heading into Q2.

What have insiders been doing with Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN)?

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 half-year time frame, Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN). These stocks are Burger King Worldwide Inc (NYSE:BKW), Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI), Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT), Arcos Dorados Holding Inc (NYSE:ARCO), and Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ). This group of stocks are the members of the restaurants industry and their market caps are closest to DNKN’s market cap.