Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Vantiv Inc (VNTV) Anymore

In the financial world, there are dozens of metrics investors can use to watch stocks. A duo of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can beat their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

Thus, it’s important to study the latest info about Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV).

How are hedge funds trading Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -22% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Water Street Capital, managed by Gilchrist Berg, holds the most valuable position in Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV). Water Street Capital has a $23.5 million position in the stock, comprising 0.8% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $18 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Seymour Sy Kaufman and Michael Stark’s Crosslink Capital, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Due to the fact Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV) has faced dropping sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there were a few money managers who were dropping their entire stakes in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Christopher Lord’s Criterion Capital cut the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, valued at about $35 million in stock, and Robert Boucai of Newbrook Capital Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $8.9 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds in Q1.

Insider trading activity in Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV)

Insider buying made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, 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 Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV). These stocks are athenahealth, Inc (NASDAQ:ATHN), Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL), Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN), FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT), and Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS). All of these stocks are in the business services industry and their market caps match VNTV’s market cap.