Global Power Equipment Group Inc (GLPW): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

Global Power Equipment Group Inc (NASDAQ:GLPW) investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months.

In the eyes of most traders, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, outdated investment tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we choose to focus on the bigwigs of this club, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the smart money’s total asset base, and by tracking their best picks, we have discovered a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of reasons for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the key action regarding Global Power Equipment Group Inc (NASDAQ:GLPW).

How are hedge funds trading Global Power Equipment Group Inc (NASDAQ:GLPW)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 13% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the most valuable position in Global Power Equipment Group Inc (NASDAQ:GLPW), worth close to $33.7 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Nelson Obus of Wynnefield Capital, with a $7.3 million position; the fund has 2.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Thomas Ellis and Todd Hammer’s North Run Capital, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management.

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds have jumped into Global Power Equipment Group Inc (NASDAQ:GLPW) headfirst. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, initiated the largest position in Global Power Equipment Group Inc (NASDAQ:GLPW). Millennium Management had 0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.

How are insiders trading Global Power Equipment Group Inc (NASDAQ:GLPW)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Global Power Equipment Group Inc (NASDAQ:GLPW) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Global Power Equipment Group Inc (NASDAQ:GLPW). These stocks are Ampco-Pittsburgh Corp. (NYSE:AP), ExOne Co (NASDAQ:XONE), Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI), Marine Products Corp. (NYSE:MPX), and Twin Disc, Incorporated (NASDAQ:TWIN). This group of stocks belong to the diversified machinery industry and their market caps are similar to GLPW’s market cap.