Hedge Funds Are Buying Ascent Capital Group Inc (ASCMA)

Should investors be bullish on Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA)?

In the financial world, there are dozens of metrics investors can use to watch Mr. Market. Two of the most under-the-radar 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 best fund managers can trounce the market by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the stock market universe. Obviously, there are plenty of motivations 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 academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s discuss the newest info about Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA).

How are hedge funds trading Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 19% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the biggest position in Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA), worth close to $85.1 million, accounting for 0.5% of its total 13F portfolio. On GAMCO Investors’s heels is Joel Ramin of 12 West Capital Management, with a $44.3 million position; the fund has 7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Jonathan Auerbach’s Hound Partners, Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

With a general bullishness amongst the titans, certain bigger names were breaking ground themselves. GAMCO Investors, managed by Mario Gabelli, created the biggest position in Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA). GAMCO Investors had 85.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Joel Ramin’s 12 West Capital Management also made a $44.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ASCMA investors: Jonathan Auerbach’s Hound Partners, Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

How have insiders been trading Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA)?

Insider buying is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA). These stocks are Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc (NASDAQ:KTOS), The Geo Group, Inc. (NYSE:GEO), American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI), Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CKP), and Brink’S Co (NYSE:BCO). All of these stocks are in the security & protection services industry and their market caps are similar to ASCMA’s market cap.

Using the returns demonstrated by the previously mentioned tactics, regular investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA) is an important part of this process.

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