Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) (GSOL): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) (NASDAQ:GSOL) investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently.

To most traders, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, old investment vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey look at the aristocrats of this group, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on the majority of the smart money’s total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their top stock picks, we have formulated a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per 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 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of stimuli for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a look at the latest action regarding Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) (NASDAQ:GSOL).

What have hedge funds been doing with Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) (NASDAQ:GSOL)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -17% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Diamond Hill Capital, managed by Ric Dillon, holds the most valuable position in Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) (NASDAQ:GSOL). Diamond Hill Capital has a $9.4 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is GAMCO Investors, managed by Mario Gabelli, which held a $2.6 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

Judging by the fact that Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) (NASDAQ:GSOL) has experienced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedgies that elected to cut their positions entirely in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group dropped the biggest position of the 450+ funds we key on, totaling about $0.1 million in stock. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds in Q1.

How have insiders been trading Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) (NASDAQ:GSOL)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) (NASDAQ:GSOL) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) (NASDAQ:GSOL). These stocks are Move Inc. (NASDAQ:MOVE), Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA), Renren Inc (NYSE:RENN), TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT), and Travelzoo Inc. (NASDAQ:TZOO). This group of stocks are the members of the internet information providers industry and their market caps resemble GSOL’s market cap.