Is The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB) the right pick for your portfolio? The smart money is taking a bullish view. The number of long hedge fund bets inched up by 2 recently.
In the eyes of most investors, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, old financial tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the top tier of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the lion’s share of the smart money’s total asset base, and by watching their best investments, we have figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Equally as important, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of stimuli for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a peek at the latest action regarding The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB).
How are hedge funds trading The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 29% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.
According to our comprehensive database, Bares Capital Management, managed by Brian Bares, holds the largest position in The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB). Bares Capital Management has a $47 million position in the stock, comprising 6% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $41.1 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Now, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Whitebox Advisors, managed by Andy Redleaf, created the largest position in The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB). Whitebox Advisors had 0.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also made a $0.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new CEB position is Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
How are insiders trading The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB)?
Insider buying is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB). These stocks are Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN), Corrections Corp Of America (NYSE:CXW), Accretive Health, Inc. (NYSE:AH), FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:FCN), and Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH). This group of stocks are the members of the management services industry and their market caps are closest to CEB’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) | 13 | 0 | 6 |
| Corrections Corp Of America (NYSE:CXW) | 26 | 0 | 12 |
| Accretive Health, Inc. (NYSE:AH) | 16 | 0 | 1 |
| FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:FCN) | 7 | 0 | 1 |
| Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH) | 5 | 0 | 7 |
With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned studies, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB) is an important part of this process.
