Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (ASPS): Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About It, Insider Sentiment Unchanged

What has a smart Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) investor to do?

If you were to ask many investors, hedge funds are assumed to be overrated, outdated financial vehicles of an era lost to time. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open in present day, Insider Monkey focuses on the aristocrats of this group, about 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group oversees the majority of all hedge funds’ total assets, and by paying attention to their highest quality stock picks, we’ve revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find the details here).

Just as necessary, positive insider trading activity is another way to analyze the world of equities. There are plenty of reasons for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to examine the newest info about Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS).

Hedge fund activity in Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS)

Heading into Q3, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -19% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Luxor Capital Group, managed by Christian Leone, holds the biggest position in Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS). Luxor Capital Group has a $181.9 million position in the stock, comprising 4.9% of its 13F portfolio. On Luxor Capital Group’s heels is Omega Advisors, managed by Leon Cooperman, which held a $117.5 million position; 1.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Matthew Iorio’s White Elm Capital and Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital.

Judging by the fact that Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) has witnessed a fall in interest from upper-tier hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few money managers that slashed their positions entirely in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Israel Englander’s Millennium Management said goodbye to the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, valued at close to $13 million in stock. Peter Rathjens Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s fund, Arrowstreet Capital, also dropped its stock, about $3.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds in Q1.

What have insiders been doing with Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS). These stocks are Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc (NYSE:NSM), Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc (NYSE:IVR), KKR Financial Holdings LLC (NYSE:KFN), Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS), and Walter Investment Management Corp (NYSE:WAC). This group of stocks are in the mortgage investment industry and their market caps resemble ASPS’s market cap.

Using the returns explained by the previously mentioned studies, average investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) is no exception.

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