Is Xerox Corporation (XRX) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) investors: listen up.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are plenty of metrics investors can use to monitor the equity markets. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can trounce the market by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as necessary, positive insider trading activity is another way to look at the marketplace. There are a variety of incentives for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Thus, let’s discuss the newest info about Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX).

How have hedgies been trading Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 35 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -10% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Larry Robbins’s Glenview Capital had the most valuable position in Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX), worth close to $296.3 million, accounting for 2.7% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by First Pacific Advisors LLC, managed by Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick, which held a $65.8 million position; the fund has 0.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Bernard Horn’s Polaris Capital Management and John Osterweis’s Osterweis Capital Management.

Judging by the fact that Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) has witnessed declining interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, we can see that there is a sect of hedgies that slashed their full holdings at the end of the second quarter. Intriguingly, Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich’s Scopia Capital cut the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we track, comprising close to $99.8 million in stock, and Neil Chriss of Hutchin Hill Capital was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $5.4 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds at the end of the second quarter.

How have insiders been trading Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX)?

Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX). These stocks are Wipro Limited (ADR) (NYSE:WIT), ServiceNow Inc (NYSE:NOW), Gartner Inc (NYSE:IT), Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (NYSE:RAX), and Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE:CSC). This group of stocks are in the information technology services industry and their market caps are similar to XRX’s market cap.