Hedge Funds Are Selling NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NTLS)

NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS) has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently.

In the financial world, there are tons of metrics shareholders can use to watch publicly traded companies. Some of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a glance at the key action regarding NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS).

What have hedge funds been doing with NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -44% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS), worth close to $3.3 million, accounting for less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $1.3 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Due to the fact that NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS) has experienced falling interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of money managers that elected to cut their entire stakes heading into Q2. Interestingly, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management cut the biggest position of all the hedgies we watch, worth about $1.2 million in stock.. Joel Greenblatt’s fund, Gotham Asset Management, also sold off its stock, about $1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds heading into Q2.

How have insiders been trading NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS) has seen 2 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS). These stocks are Telular Corporation (NASDAQ:WRLS), UTStarcom Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:UTSI), Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANEN), USA Mobility Inc (NASDAQ:USMO), and Maxcom Telecomunic S.A.B. de C.V. (ADR) (NYSE:MXT). This group of stocks are in the wireless communications industry and their market caps are similar to NTLS’s market cap.