Hedge Funds Are Selling Cardtronics, Inc. (CATM)

Should Cardtronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATM) investors track the following data?

In the eyes of many market players, hedge funds are viewed as delayed, outdated financial tools of an era lost to time. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds in operation in present day, this site focuses on the aristocrats of this club, about 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group controls most of the smart money’s total assets, and by tracking their best picks, we’ve found a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Equally as necessary, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to look at the marketplace. There are a number of reasons for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s important to study the newest info surrounding Cardtronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATM).

Hedge fund activity in Cardtronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATM)

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -14% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.

According to our 13F database, David Gallo’s Valinor Management LLC had the biggest position in Cardtronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATM), worth close to $41 million, comprising 1.7% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, which held a $4.3 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Because Cardtronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATM) has witnessed dropping sentiment from the top-tier hedge fund industry, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that elected to cut their full holdings at the end of the second quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Steven Owsley’s Madison Street Partners said goodbye to the biggest position of all the hedgies we track, valued at an estimated $0.7 million in stock, and Mike Vranos of Ellington was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds at the end of the second quarter.

How have insiders been trading Cardtronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATM)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Cardtronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATM) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, 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 Cardtronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATM). These stocks are Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT), VistaPrint Limited (NASDAQ:VPRT), ABM Industries, Inc. (NYSE:ABM), Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE:HPY), and Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG). This group of stocks are in the business services industry and their market caps are similar to CATM’s market cap.