Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About PRGX Global Inc (PRGX) Anymore

Is PRGX Global Inc (NASDAQ:PRGX) ready to rally soon? Hedge funds are getting less bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions were trimmed by 1 in recent months.

If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are viewed as slow, old financial tools of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, we choose to focus on the top tier of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on the majority of the smart money’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their highest performing investments, we have revealed a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped 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 outclassed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Just as important, bullish insider trading activity is another way to break down the marketplace. There are lots of motivations for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you understand where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a glance at the key action encompassing PRGX Global Inc (NASDAQ:PRGX).

What have hedge funds been doing with PRGX Global Inc (NASDAQ:PRGX)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -10% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Constantinos J. Christofilis’s Archon Capital Management had the biggest position in PRGX Global Inc (NASDAQ:PRGX), worth close to $11.1 million, accounting for 5.8% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $7.6 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Matthew Drapkin and Steven R. Becker’s Becker Drapkin Management, J. Carlo Cannell’s Cannell Capital and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Due to the fact that PRGX Global Inc (NASDAQ:PRGX) has witnessed a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of funds that slashed their positions entirely last quarter. Interestingly, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group dumped the largest investment of the 450+ funds we watch, worth close to $1.7 million in stock., and Brian Taylor of Pine River Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $1.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds last quarter.

What have insiders been doing with PRGX Global Inc (NASDAQ:PRGX)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, PRGX Global Inc (NASDAQ:PRGX) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to PRGX Global Inc (NASDAQ:PRGX). These stocks are Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS), PowerSecure International, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWR), Swisher Hygiene, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWSH), Digital Generation Inc (NASDAQ:DGIT), and Limelight Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:LLNW). This group of stocks belong to the business services industry and their market caps resemble PRGX’s market cap.