Hedge Funds Are Betting On PROS Holdings, Inc. (PRO)

PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO) investors should be aware of an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late.

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of gauges investors can use to analyze Mr. Market. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can outpace the broader indices by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if you understand what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action encompassing PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO).

What does the smart money think about PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 25% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Polar Capital, managed by Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley, holds the largest position in PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO). Polar Capital has a $6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $1.1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, established the most valuable position in PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO). Millennium Management had 1.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter.

What have insiders been doing with PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO). These stocks are FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX), Lifelock Inc (NYSE:LOCK), Demandware Inc (NYSE:DWRE), BroadSoft Inc (NASDAQ:BSFT), and AVG Technologies NV (NYSE:AVG). This group of stocks are in the application software industry and their market caps are similar to PRO’s market cap.