Hedge Funds Are Betting On Strayer Education Inc (STRA)

Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA) shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late.

At the moment, there are many methods investors can use to watch publicly traded companies. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top investment managers can beat their index-focused peers by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a number of reasons for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action surrounding Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA).

What have hedge funds been doing with Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA)?

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 29% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA). Royce & Associates has a $57.5 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is David Blood and Al Gore of Generation Investment Management, with a $39.5 million position; the fund has 0.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Now, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, assembled the biggest position in Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA). Millennium Management had 0.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also made a $0.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new STRA position is David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments.

How are insiders trading Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA)?

Insider buying is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA). 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 Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI). This group of stocks are the members of the education & training services industry and their market caps are closest to STRA’s market cap.