If you’d ask most traders, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, outdated financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the upper echelon of this group, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their best equity investments, we have found a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you understand where to look (learn more here).
Now, let’s take a peek at the recent action regarding Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA).
What have hedge funds been doing with Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 4 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -33% from one quarter earlier.
Due to the fact that Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA) has witnessed falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies who sold off their positions entirely in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management said goodbye to the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, worth close to $1.6 million in stock., and Matthew Hulsizer of PEAK6 Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds in Q1.
How are insiders trading Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA)?
Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time period, Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA). These stocks are HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM), Travelzoo Inc. (NASDAQ:TZOO), SouFun Holdings Limited (ADR) (NYSE:SFUN), Move Inc. (NASDAQ:MOVE), and Renren Inc (NYSE:RENN). All of these stocks are in the internet information providers industry and their market caps are closest to BITA’s market cap.
