Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently.
In today’s marketplace, there are many indicators investors can use to watch stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a superb amount (see just how much).
Just as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action encompassing Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL).
What have hedge funds been doing with Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 27 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.
According to our comprehensive database, Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management had the most valuable position in Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL), worth close to $132.3 million, accounting for 0.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Richard S. Pzena of Pzena Investment Management, with a $94.3 million position; 0.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
Because Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) has witnessed falling interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there were a few hedgies who sold off their full holdings in Q1. At the top of the heap, Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates cut the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, comprising close to $38.7 million in stock.. Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s fund, LMR Partners, also sold off its stock, about $3.9 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
How are insiders trading Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL)?
Insider buying is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL). These stocks are TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS), K12 Inc. (NYSE:LRN), Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE), The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO), and DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV). This group of stocks are the members of the education & training services industry and their market caps match APOL’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| K12 Inc. (NYSE:LRN) | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE) | 13 | 0 | 6 |
| The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO) | 19 | 0 | 1 |
| DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV) | 16 | 2 | 2 |
With the returns exhibited by the aforementioned tactics, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) applies perfectly to this mantra.
