Is TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS) a buy, sell, or hold? The best stock pickers are becoming less confident. The number of bullish hedge fund positions stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience
In the financial world, there are many gauges investors can use to track Mr. Market. Some of the best 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 investment managers can trounce the broader indices by a superb margin (see just how much).
Equally as integral, bullish insider trading activity is another way to break down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are a variety of stimuli for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if investors know where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a gander at the key action encompassing TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS).
How are hedge funds trading TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS)?
In preparation for this quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.
Of the funds we track, Chase Coleman and Feroz Dewan’s Tiger Global Management LLC had the largest position in TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS), worth close to $76.4 million, accounting for 1.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On Tiger Global Management LLC’s heels is Robert Karr of Joho Capital, with a $19.3 million position; 2.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedgies that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
Since TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS) has faced declining sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of fund managers that slashed their full holdings in Q1. Interestingly, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors sold off the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we track, comprising an estimated $0.2 million in stock. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
How are insiders trading TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS)?
Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS) has seen zero 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 TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS). These stocks are Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE), Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA), Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI), K12 Inc. (NYSE:LRN), and New Oriental Education & Tech Grp (ADR) (NYSE:EDU). This group of stocks are in the education & training services industry and their market caps are similar to XRS’s market cap.
