What’s a smart Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA) investor to do?
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are a multitude of gauges shareholders can use to watch the equity markets. A duo 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 top money managers can trounce the broader indices by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Just as useful, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the financial markets. There are lots of stimuli for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).
What’s more, we’re going to study the newest info surrounding Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA).
What have hedge funds been doing with Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA)?
Heading into Q3, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 129% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.
As one would understandably expect, specific money managers have jumped into Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA) headfirst. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, created the most valuable position in Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA). Renaissance Technologies had 40.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates also made a $12.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CPLA investors: Nathaniel August’s Mangrove Partners, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, and Philip Hempleman’s Ardsley Partners.
How have insiders been trading Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA)?
Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA). These stocks are Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA), Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE:UTI), ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI), Education Management Corp (NASDAQ:EDMC), and GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX). This group of stocks are the members of the education & training services industry and their market caps resemble CPLA’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA) | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE:UTI) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI) | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| Education Management Corp (NASDAQ:EDMC) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s studies, average investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA) is no exception.
