Google Inc (GOOG): You Should Really See This Data

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has experienced a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately.

At the moment, there are dozens of methods shareholders can use to track stocks. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as key, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of motivations for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a gander at the recent action surrounding Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG).

What does the smart money think about Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 126 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -12% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital had the most valuable position in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), worth close to $1.0986 billion, comprising 6.9% of its total 13F portfolio. On Lone Pine Capital’s heels is Lansdowne Partners, managed by Paul Ruddockáand Steve Heinz, which held a $607.4 million position; 10.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management, and Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management.

Seeing as Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has experienced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedge funds who sold off their entire stakes in Q4. At the top of the heap, Chase Coleman and Feroz Dewan’s Tiger Global Management LLC said goodbye to the largest stake of the 450+ funds we track, comprising close to $526.6 million in stock.. Panayotis æTakisÆ Sparaggis’s fund, Alkeon Capital Management, also dumped its stock, about $353.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 17 funds in Q4.

How have insiders been trading Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). These stocks are Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX), LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). This group of stocks are in the internet information providers industry and their market caps resemble GOOG’s market cap.