Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love KEYW Holding Corp. (KEYW)?

KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. KEYW investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund sentiment recently. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with KEYW positions at the end of the previous quarter.

At the moment, there are tons of gauges investors can use to track Mr. Market. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are a variety of stimuli for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action encompassing KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW).

How are hedge funds trading KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 40% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Espalier Global Management, managed by Wojciech Uzdelewicz, holds the most valuable position in KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW). Espalier Global Management has a $11.3 million position in the stock, comprising 1.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, which held a $2.2 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, initiated the most valuable position in KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW). Balyasny Asset Management had 2.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also made a $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new KEYW investors: Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Philip Hempleman’s Ardsley Partners.

What have insiders been doing with KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW). These stocks are Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC), VASCO Data Security International, Inc. (NASDAQ:VDSI), Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT), Intralinks Holdings Inc (NYSE:IL), and AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA). This group of stocks belong to the security software & services industry and their market caps are similar to KEYW’s market cap.

With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s strategies, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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