If you weren’t already bullish on Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)’s growth prospects and mobile potential, here’s another reason to be.
To the average investor, there are tons of metrics market participants can use to monitor their holdings. A duo of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can trounce the broader indices by a superb margin (see just how much).
Equally as crucial, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
Thus, let’s analyze the newest info about Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU).
How are hedge funds trading Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)?
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 34 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 17% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management had the most valuable position in Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), worth close to $257.9 million, comprising 2.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is William von Mueffling of Cantillon Capital Management, with a $223.1 million position; the fund has 6.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Robert Karr’s Joho Capital, Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management and Christopher Lord’s Criterion Capital.
Consequently, particular hedge funds have jumped into Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) headfirst. Orbis Investment Management, managed by William B. Gray, established the biggest position in Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU). Orbis Investment Management had 257.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. William von Mueffling’s Cantillon Capital Management also initiated a $223.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Robert Karr’s Joho Capital, Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management, and Christopher Lord’s Criterion Capital.
Insider trading activity in Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)
Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU). These stocks are Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP), Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). This group of stocks are in the internet information providers industry and their market caps match BIDU’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) | 42 | 0 | 0 |
| Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) | 48 | 0 | 9 |
| LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) | 45 | 0 | 13 |
| Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) | 66 | 0 | 3 |
Using the results shown by Insider Monkey’s strategies, average investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
