NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. NTSP shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with NTSP positions at the end of the previous quarter.
In today’s marketplace, there are tons of methods market participants can use to analyze their holdings. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can beat the S&P 500 by a very impressive margin (see just how much).
Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to break down the financial markets. Obviously, there are plenty of motivations for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, let’s take a glance at the latest action surrounding NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP).
How have hedgies been trading NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP)?
Heading into 2013, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -30% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.
According to our comprehensive database, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the most valuable position in NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP), worth close to $19 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which held a $6.5 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that are bullish include Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital, Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
Judging by the fact that NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP) has faced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few fund managers that slashed their entire stakes in Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies dumped the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at an estimated $1.2 million in stock.. Joel Greenblatt’s fund, Gotham Asset Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.8 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds in Q4.
Insider trading activity in NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP)
Insider buying is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP). These stocks are Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ARP), Infoblox Inc (NYSE:BLOX), ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS), Quad/Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:QUAD), and TeleTech Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEC). This group of stocks are the members of the business services industry and their market caps are similar to NTSP’s market cap.
