Hedge Funds Are Dumping Mantech International Corp (MANT)

Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT) investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are many gauges investors can use to watch stocks. A couple of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, bullish insider trading activity is another way to break down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are lots of motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a gander at the latest action surrounding Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT).

How are hedge funds trading Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -18% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT). Royce & Associates has a $96.8 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Martin Whitman of Third Avenue Management, with a $51.5 million position; 1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers that are bullish include David Abrams’s Abrams Capital Management, David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.

Because Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT) has experienced a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there were a few money managers who sold off their entire stakes at the end of the first quarter. Interestingly, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors said goodbye to the biggest stake of all the hedgies we watch, comprising close to $1.1 million in stock., and Israel Englander of Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds at the end of the first quarter.

Insider trading activity in Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT)

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT). These stocks are Intralinks Holdings Inc (NYSE:IL), Sourcefire, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIRE), Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC), KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW), and AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA). This group of stocks belong to the security software & services industry and their market caps are closest to MANT’s market cap.

With the returns shown by the aforementioned time-tested strategies, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT) is no exception.

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