Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK) – URS Corp (NYSE:URS), AECOM Technology Corp (NYSE:ACM)

Is Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK) the right investment to pursue these days? Prominent investors are in an optimistic mood. The number of long hedge fund bets increased by 2 in recent months.

At the moment, there are plenty of methods investors can use to analyze the equity markets. Some of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading movement. 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 market by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are a number of reasons for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action encompassing Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK).

How have hedgies been trading Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK). Royce & Associates has a $34 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $10 million position; the fund has 0% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include John I. Dickerson’s Summit Global Management, Craig C. Albert’s Sheffield Asset Management and Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors.

As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, established the biggest position in Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK). Renaissance Technologies had 10 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Craig C. Albert’s Sheffield Asset Management also initiated a $4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new TTEK investors: Whitney Tilson’s T2 Partners, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital.

What have insiders been doing with Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK). These stocks are URS Corp (NYSE:URS), AECOM Technology Corp (NYSE:ACM), The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE:SHAW), CACI International Inc (NYSE:CACI), and Stantec Inc. (USA) (NYSE:STN). This group of stocks are in the technical services industry and their market caps match TTEK’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK) is no exception.