Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Grand Canyon Education Inc (LOPE)

Is Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE) the right pick for your portfolio? Investors who are in the know are becoming less hopeful. The number of bullish hedge fund positions fell by 4 recently.

In the financial world, there are plenty of methods market participants can use to monitor publicly traded companies. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of stimuli for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a look at the key action encompassing Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE).

What does the smart money think about Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -24% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE), worth close to $28.4 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Stadium Capital Management, managed by Alexander Medina Seaver, which held a $20.8 million position; 4.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include Peter S. Park’s Park West Asset Management, Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Since Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE) has experienced bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedgies that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into Q2. At the top of the heap, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors dumped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we track, comprising about $1 million in stock.. Steven Cohen’s fund, SAC Capital Advisors, also sold off its stock, about $1 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds heading into Q2.

What have insiders been doing with Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time frame, Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE). These stocks are DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV), Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL), New Oriental Education & Tech Grp (ADR) (NYSE:EDU), TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS), and K12 Inc. (NYSE:LRN). This group of stocks are in the education & training services industry and their market caps resemble LOPE’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by the aforementioned research, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE) is no exception.

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