CTC Media, Inc. (CTCM), Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI): Here is What Hedge Funds and Insiders Think

If you were to ask many of your peers, hedge funds are viewed as overrated, outdated financial vehicles of a period lost to current times. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds trading in present day, Insider Monkey focuses on the crème de la crème of this group, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group controls most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by paying attention to their highest performing investments, we’ve spotted a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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).

Equally as useful, bullish insider trading activity is another way to look at the marketplace. There are a number of incentives for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Thus, it’s important to analyze the recent info about CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCM).

Hedge fund activity in CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCM)

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the most valuable position in CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCM). Citadel Investment Group has a $6.1 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Dreman Value Management, managed by David Dreman, which held a $5.4 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that hold long positions include Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

As CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCM) has experienced a fall in interest from the top-tier hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few hedgies who sold off their positions entirely in Q1. Interestingly, Patrik Brummer’s Zenit Asset Management AB said goodbye to the largest position of the 450+ funds we track, valued at close to $3.3 million in stock. Steven Cohen’s fund, SAC Capital Advisors, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.9 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How have insiders been trading CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCM)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCM) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCM). These stocks are Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (NYSE:SNI), Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST), LIN TV Corp (NYSE:TVL), Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC), and Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI). All of these stocks are in the broadcasting – tv industry and their market caps resemble CTCM’s market cap.

Using the results explained by the previously mentioned strategies, average investors should always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCM) is no exception.

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