Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (GCA)?

Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GCA) was in 19 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. GCA investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money lately. There were 19 hedge funds in our database with GCA positions at the end of the previous quarter.

To the average investor, there are plenty of gauges market participants can use to watch publicly traded companies. 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 elite investment managers can outclass the broader indices by a significant margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at the key action regarding Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GCA).

Hedge fund activity in Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GCA)

At Q1’s end, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Gregg J. Powers’s Private Capital Management had the most valuable position in Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GCA), worth close to $18 million, accounting for 1.7% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by D. E. Shaw of D E Shaw, with a $13 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include Gregory A. Weaver’s Invicta Capital Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Amy Minella’s Cardinal Capital.

Because Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GCA) has witnessed declining sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers who sold off their positions entirely heading into Q2. Interestingly, Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital sold off the largest position of all the hedgies we track, comprising an estimated $7.4 million in stock.. Anil Stevens and Glenn Shapiro’s fund, Parameter Capital Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $1.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Insider trading activity in Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GCA)

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time frame, Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GCA) has experienced 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GCA). These stocks are Medallion Financial Corp (NASDAQ:TAXI), DFC Global Corp (NASDAQ:DLLR), Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (NYSE:AGM), NewStar Financial Inc (NASDAQ:NEWS), and Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:FSC). This group of stocks belong to the credit services industry and their market caps resemble GCA’s market cap.