Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (CNSL): Hedge Funds and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL) has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently.

In the financial world, there are plenty of metrics shareholders can use to track their holdings. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can beat the broader indices by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of stimuli for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if you know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a look at the key action regarding Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL).

What does the smart money think about Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 4 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -20% 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 holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Meridee A. Moore’s Watershed Asset Management had the largest position in Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL), worth close to $6.3 million, accounting for 3.8% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $3.5 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Seeing as Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL) has faced falling interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds who sold off their positions entirely last quarter. At the top of the heap, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management sold off the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we track, comprising close to $1.1 million in stock., and Matthew Hulsizer of PEAK6 Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds last quarter.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL). These stocks are magicJack VocalTec Ltd (NASDAQ:CALL), Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (NASDAQ:SHEN), EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ:ELNK), Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATNI), and Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE:CBB). This group of stocks are the members of the telecom services – domestic industry and their market caps are closest to CNSL’s market cap.