Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Informatica Corporation (INFA)

Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA) investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently.

In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, old investment tools of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we hone in on the masters of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by paying attention to their highest performing investments, we have identified a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat 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 outperformed 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 investments you’re interested in. There are many incentives for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the latest action regarding Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA).

What does the smart money think about Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 27 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -16% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital had the biggest position in Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA), worth close to $96.3 million, comprising 2.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Coatue Management, managed by Philippe Laffont, which held a $70.9 million position; the fund has 0.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Panayotis Takis Sparaggis’s Alkeon Capital Management, John Lykouretzos’s Hoplite Capital Management and Josh Resnick’s Jericho Capital Asset Management.

Due to the fact that Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA) has experienced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there exists a select few fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital dropped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, totaling an estimated $56.8 million in stock.. Christopher Medlock James’s fund, Partner Fund Management, also dumped its stock, about $25.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 5 funds last quarter.

Insider trading activity in Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA) has seen 5 unique insiders purchasing, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA). These stocks are Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS), Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN), Tibco Software Inc. (NASDAQ:TIBX), Solera Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLH), and Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:JKHY). All of these stocks are in the business software & services industry and their market caps are similar to INFA’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by the aforementioned tactics, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA) is an important part of this process.

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