American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI) was in 12 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. ASEI investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with ASEI holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
In today’s marketplace, there are plenty of methods market participants can use to track the equity markets. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a glance at the latest action encompassing American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI).
How are hedge funds trading American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 33% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.
According to our comprehensive database, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the most valuable position in American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI). Renaissance Technologies has a $20.8 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $18.1 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Scott Burney’s Bluefin Investment Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Bluefin Investment Management, managed by Scott Burney, established the most valuable position in American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI). Bluefin Investment Management had 2.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $1.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ASEI investors: Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, and Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital.
How are insiders trading American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time frame, American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI). These stocks are CompX International Inc. (NYSEAMEX:CIX), Brink’S Co (NYSE:BCO), Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc (NASDAQ:KTOS), and Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CKP). All of these stocks are in the security & protection services industry and their market caps resemble ASEI’s market cap.
