Hedge Funds Are Buying Advent Software, Inc. (ADVS)

Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently.

In today’s marketplace, there are many indicators investors can use to watch their holdings. Some of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top investment managers can beat their index-focused peers by a solid margin (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the world of equities. Obviously, there are a variety of stimuli for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a look at the recent action regarding Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS).

What have hedge funds been doing with Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 13% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, John H. Scully’s SPO Advisory Corp had the largest position in Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS), worth close to $439.5 million, accounting for 6% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is John Overdeck and David Siegel of Two Sigma Advisors, with a $1.9 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have jumped into Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS) headfirst. D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, created the biggest position in Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS). D E Shaw had 1.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also made a $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

How have insiders been trading Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 6 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 Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS). These stocks are Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNCR), NIC Inc. (NASDAQ:EGOV), RealPage, Inc. (NASDAQ:RP), Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS), and Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH). This group of stocks belong to the application software industry and their market caps are similar to ADVS’s market cap.

With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, retail investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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