Hedge Funds Are Selling Bridgepoint Education Inc (BPI)

Is Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI) a good investment?

To the average investor, there are a multitude of metrics market participants can use to monitor Mr. Market. A pair of the most innovative 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 best hedge fund managers can beat the market by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of incentives for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

What’s more, let’s examine the recent info surrounding Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI).

What does the smart money think about Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -8% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Robert Pitts’s Steadfast Capital Management had the most valuable position in Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI), worth close to $14.4 million, comprising 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack of Nantahala Capital Management, with a $9.5 million position; 2.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Because Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI) has experienced a fall in interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, we can see that there is a sect of funds who sold off their full holdings in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Israel Englander’s Millennium Management sold off the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, comprising close to $1 million in stock, and Jacob Gottlieb of Visium Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.2 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds in Q1.

How have insiders been trading Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI). These stocks are TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS), New Oriental Education & Tech Grp (ADR) (NYSE:EDU), GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX), Education Management Corp (NASDAQ:EDMC), and Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA). This group of stocks are in the education & training services industry and their market caps are similar to BPI’s market cap.