There is one thing that many great investors have in common: they buy when others are selling. Billionaire Ken Griffin is no exception to the rule, which is why amid a general sell-off, Mr. Griffin made some bullish bets. Recently, Mr. Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group surged its stake in Angie’s List Inc (NASDAQ:ANGI). The investor now owns almost 3.38 million shares of the company, which represent 5.8% of the company’s common stock. This represents an increase from around 133,700 shares held at the end of June.
As it has been said earlier, Citadel has recently increased its position in several other companies. Last week, the fund reported raising its stake to Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust (NYSE:SWAY) real estate investment trust to over 2.0 million shares (5.4% of the company) from 313,000 shares held previously. At the end of September, the investor added over 2.7 million shares to its position in Acxiom Corporation (NASDAQ:ACXM), currently holding 5.2% of the company, and it increased its stake in Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNSS) to 3.17 million shares from 77,400 shares.
What all these companies have in common is that their stocks dropped significantly since the beginning of the year. Angie’s List Inc (NASDAQ:ANGI) also falls under this category, losing over 55% year-to-date.
Mr. Griffin is a genius investor, who leads one of the largest hedge funds in the world, with over $107 billion in assets under management and an equity portfolio worth $72 billion. Even though Citadel like to keep the data about its performance private, Bloomberg mentioned a couple of weeks ago, that the fund added around 4% in September, when many other hedge funds suffered losses from the main indices losing ground. So far, Citadel’s returns for 2014 amount to around 15%.
In this way, tracking Mr. Griffin’s bullish moves makes a lot of sense for retail investors, especially in the small-cap stocks, such as Angie’s List Inc (NASDAQ:ANGI). Moreover, other prominent investors are also betting on the company. The previous round of 13F filings showed Andy Redleaf‘s Whitebox Advisors raising its stake by 60% on the quarter to 1.09 million shares, while David Shaw’s D. E. Shaw surged its position by 1,500% to 682,700 shares. Moreover, Millennium Management, led by Israel Englander, and Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies initiated stakes in the company during the second quarter and own 449,300 shares and 416,400 shares respectively. However, the holdings amass very small portions of the total equity portfolios values, which is usually the case with small companies.
Insiders are also betting on Angie’s List Inc (NASDAQ:ANGI). Over the last two months, Steven Kapner, a director of the company, has been constantly buying shares, currently holding over 11.6 million shares. However, insiders purchased stock higher than the current price. In addition, several other insiders unloaded stock earlier this year at prices between $9.9 and $12.40 per unit.
With this in mind, on the back of a bullish sentiment from investors and insiders, Angie’s List Inc (NASDAQ:ANGI), a small cap company that is engaged in consumer research related to the home, healthcare and automotive services, is worth further research and worth to be kept on the radars. Analysts also have a positive outlook for the stock, with the average price target topping $10 per share.
