Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Web.com Group Inc (WWWW)?

Is Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW) a buy here? Money managers are getting less bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets dropped by 1 in recent months.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are many methods shareholders can use to track their holdings. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can beat the market by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are many incentives for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a look at the recent action encompassing Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW).

What have hedge funds been doing with Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -9% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Peter A. Wright’s P.A.W. CAPITAL PARTNERS had the biggest position in Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW), worth close to $8.4 million, accounting for 6.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Shannon River Fund Management, managed by Spencer M. Waxman, which held a $8.2 million position; 1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds that hold long positions include Craig C. Albert’s Sheffield Asset Management, Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Judging by the fact that Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW) has faced declining sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there were a few money managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely in Q1. At the top of the heap, James Dondero’s Highland Capital Management cut the biggest stake of all the hedgies we watch, worth an estimated $10.1 million in stock.. Anand Parekh’s fund, Alyeska Investment Group, also said goodbye to its stock, about $3.1 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds in Q1.

Insider trading activity in Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW)

Insider buying is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW) has seen 2 unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW). These stocks are SouFun Holdings Limited (ADR) (NYSE:SFUN), OpenTable Inc (NASDAQ:OPEN), Bankrate Inc (NYSE:RATE), HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM), and Blucora Inc (NASDAQ:BCOR). This group of stocks belong to the internet information providers industry and their market caps match WWWW’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds