Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST)? – Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC), LIN TV Corp (NYSE:TVL)

Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund sentiment of late.

In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are seen as slow, old financial tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation today, we choose to focus on the upper echelon of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on most of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by tracking their best equity investments, we have formulated a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see all of our picks from August).

Just as integral, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are lots of stimuli for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, let’s take a peek at the latest action surrounding Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST).

What does the smart money think about Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST)?

At year’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 133% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Edward A. Mule’s Silver Point Capital had the largest position in Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST), worth close to $17 million, comprising 1.5% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is North Run Capital, managed by Thomas Ellis and Todd Hammer, which held a $16 million position; the fund has 1.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Kelly Cardwell’s Central Square Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Charles Davidson’s Wexford Capital.

Consequently, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Wexford Capital, managed by Charles Davidson, created the most valuable position in Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST). Wexford Capital had 4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Geoffrey Raynor’s Q Investments (Specter Holdings) also made a $2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new NXST investors: Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, John Bader’s Halcyon Asset Management, and Israel Englander’s Catapult Capital Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST). These stocks are Entravision Communication (NYSE:EVC), Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC), Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ:CETV), Fisher Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSCI), and LIN TV Corp (NYSE:TVL). This group of stocks are the members of the broadcasting – tv industry and their market caps match NXST’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s studies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST) applies perfectly to this mantra.