Is Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM) going to take off soon? Prominent investors are in an optimistic mood. The number of bullish hedge fund positions advanced by 2 recently.
To most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as worthless, old investment vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the bigwigs of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by tracking their top investments, we have revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).
Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of motivations for a bullish insider to downsize 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 piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the latest action regarding Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM).
Hedge fund activity in Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM)
In preparation for this quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 25% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Pivot Point Capital, managed by James A. Noonan, holds the biggest position in Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM). Pivot Point Capital has a $29.6 million position in the stock, comprising 16.6% of its 13F portfolio. On Pivot Point Capital’s heels is Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley of Polar Capital, with a $8.7 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors, Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners and Richard S. Meisenberg’s ACK Asset Management.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. ACK Asset Management, managed by Richard S. Meisenberg, assembled the largest position in Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM). ACK Asset Management had 5.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. James Dondero’s Highland Capital Management also initiated a $0.6 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new EXAM investors: Israel Englander’s Catapult Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM) has experienced 2 unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM). These stocks are Performant Financial Corp (NASDAQ:PFMT), American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:APEI), Comverse Inc (NASDAQ:CNSI), COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR), and Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT). This group of stocks are the members of the business services industry and their market caps are closest to EXAM’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Performant Financial Corp (NASDAQ:PFMT) | 4 | 1 | 10 |
| American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:APEI) | 11 | 0 | 6 |
| Comverse Inc (NASDAQ:CNSI) | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) | 10 | 0 | 1 |
| Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT) | 14 | 1 | 0 |
With the returns shown by our studies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM) is an important part of this process.
