Hedge Funds Are Buying IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)

Is IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) a buy, sell, or hold? Investors who are in the know are in an optimistic mood. The number of long hedge fund bets rose by 7 lately.

In today’s marketplace, there are many metrics market participants can use to analyze the equity markets. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of motivations for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if you know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the key action regarding IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI).

What does the smart money think about IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 30 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 30% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners had the most valuable position in IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI), worth close to $89.9 million, comprising 1.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Donald Chiboucis of Columbus Circle Investors, with a $83.1 million position; 0.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, and Amy Minella’s Cardinal Capital.

Now, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. JANA Partners, managed by Barry Rosenstein, established the biggest position in IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI). JANA Partners had 89.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jeffrey Tannenbaum’s Fir Tree also initiated a $56.7 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new IACI investors: David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Peter S. Park’s Park West Asset Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI). These stocks are Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY), Youku Tudou Inc (ADR) (NYSE:YOKU), AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL), and Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN). This group of stocks belong to the internet information providers industry and their market caps match IACI’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by the aforementioned time-tested strategies, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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