AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (ASIA): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It But Hedge Funds Love It

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of methods investors can use to analyze Mr. Market. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can beat the market by a solid amount (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of stimuli for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s discuss the latest info for AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA).

How have hedgies been trading AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 29% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Matthew Halbower’s Pentwater Capital Management had the biggest position in AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA), worth close to $5.8 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by D. E. Shaw of D E Shaw, with a $5.5 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include Paul Glazer’s Glazer Capital, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

As industrywide interest increased, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Pentwater Capital Management, managed by Matthew Halbower, initiated the biggest position in AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA). Pentwater Capital Management had 5.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $5.5 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ASIA investors: Paul Glazer’s Glazer Capital, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero 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 AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA). These stocks are Intralinks Holdings Inc (NYSE:IL), Sourcefire, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIRE), Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC), KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW), and Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT). All of these stocks are in the security software & services industry and their market caps resemble ASIA’s market cap.