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W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA) was in 46 hedge funds' portfolio at the end of March. GRA investors should be aware of an increase in support from the world's most elite money managers recently. There were 42 hedge funds in our database with GRA positions at the end of the previous quarter.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are a multitude of metrics investors can use to track publicly traded companies. Two of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can beat the broader indices by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the world of equities. Just as you'd expect, there are lots of stimuli for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if "monkeys" understand what to do (learn more here). Now, we're going to take a glance at the key action surrounding W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA).

Hedge fund activity in W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 46 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 10% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies' capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially. According to our comprehensive database, David Cohen and Harold Levy's Iridian Asset Management had the most valuable position in W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA), worth close to $278.8 million, comprising 4.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On Iridian Asset Management's heels is Blue Ridge Capital, managed by John Griffin, which held a $232.5 million position; the fund has 2.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Richard Chilton's Chilton Investment Company, Jonathan Auerbach's Hound Partners and Daniel S. Och's OZ Management. As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Lone Pine Capital, managed by Stephen Mandel, assembled the most outsized position in W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA). Lone Pine Capital had 115.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. George Soros's Soros Fund Management also initiated a $22.5 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new GRA investors: SAC Subsidiary's CR Intrinsic Investors, James Pallotta's Raptor Capital Management, and Mark Kingdon's Kingdon Capital.

How are insiders trading W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company we're looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here). Let's check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA). These stocks are Rockwood Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ROC), Westlake Chemical Corporation (NYSE:WLK), International Flavors & Fragrances Inc (NYSE:IFF), The Valspar Corporation (NYSE:VAL), and Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB). All of these stocks are in the specialty chemicals industry and their market caps are similar to GRA's market cap.