Is Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI) a splendid investment today? Money managers are turning bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions inched up by 2 recently.
If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be underperforming, old investment vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the crème de la crème of this group, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by watching their top stock picks, we have identified a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as important, bullish insider trading activity is another way to break down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of stimuli for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the key action surrounding Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI).
How have hedgies been trading Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 18% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.
According to our comprehensive database, Nantahala Capital Management, managed by Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack, holds the largest position in Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI). Nantahala Capital Management has a $14.7 million position in the stock, comprising 2.3% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Steadfast Capital Management, managed by Robert Pitts, which held a $12.1 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Michael Price’s MFP Investors and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
Consequently, specific money managers have jumped into Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI) headfirst. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, established the biggest position in Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI). Millennium Management had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management also made a $0.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI)?
Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time frame, Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI). These stocks are TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS), New Oriental Education & Tech Grp (ADR) (NYSE:EDU), GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX), Education Management Corp (NASDAQ:EDMC), and Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA). This group of stocks are in the education & training services industry and their market caps resemble BPI’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| New Oriental Education & Tech Grp (ADR) (NYSE:EDU) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX) | 9 | 0 | 3 |
| Education Management Corp (NASDAQ:EDMC) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA) | 9 | 0 | 5 |
With the results shown by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI) is an important part of this process.
