Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love eBay Inc. (EBAY)?

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) has seen some intriguing activity from the smart money of late, and while investors tend to pay attention to other investment indicators first, we at Insider Monkey have found it’s important to watch hedge fund sentiment. Hedge funds’ best small-cap picks have historically beaten the market by 18 percentage points annually for over a decade, and since we started sharing this strategy with the public, it’s up on the S&P 500 by more than 20 percentage points in just six months (see how to use this yourself).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the recent action surrounding eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY), while also keeping an eye on what corporate insiders have been doing for good measure (learn why here).

Hedge fund activity in eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY)

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 81 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 14% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, some notable hedge fund managers were upping their stakes considerably.

David Harding increased his stake by a total of 381%, the largest of the funds we track. D. E. Shaw and Steve Shapiro were also increasing their holdings, while Charles Clough and Bart Baum established new positions in the stock.

All in all, Lone Pine Capital held the largest position, ahead of peers Discovery Capital Management, Sac Capital Advisors, and Scout Capital Management.

Insider trading activity in eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY)

Since the start of 2013, eBay Inc. has seen 0 insider purchases and 19 insider sales.

The latest insider purchase we have on record was a buy of 3,380 shares at an average price of $29.56 a piece. Holmes Robert Swanmade this transaction, and now holds 296,425 shares after the move.

Likewise, the most recent insider sale came with Iii T Richard Schlosberg’s transaction of 15,000 shares at an average price of $56.76.

With the results demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) is no exception.

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Insider Monkey’s small-cap strategy returned 29.2% between September 2012 and February 2013 versus 8.7% for the S&P 500 index. Try it now by clicking the link above.

Disclosure: none