Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (OWW)

Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW) was in 12 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. OWW has experienced an increase in hedge fund sentiment of late. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with OWW holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, outdated investment tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey look at the elite of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the lion’s share of the smart money’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their top stock picks, we have spotted a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are many motivations for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action regarding Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW).

Hedge fund activity in Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW)

At Q1’s end, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 33% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, PAR Capital Management, managed by Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro, holds the most valuable position in Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW). PAR Capital Management has a $140.5 million position in the stock, comprising 4.4% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, which held a $9.6 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that are bullish include Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter Capital Management.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Algert Coldiron Investors, managed by Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron, initiated the most outsized position in Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW). Algert Coldiron Investors had 0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors also made a $0.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new OWW positions are Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners, Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Insider trading activity in Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW). These stocks are Carnival plc (ADR) (NYSE:CUK), Six Flags Entertainment Corp (NYSE:SIX), Premier Exhibitions, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRXI), Cedar Fair, L.P. (NYSE:FUN), and MakeMyTrip Limited (NASDAQ:MMYT). This group of stocks belong to the general entertainment industry and their market caps match OWW’s market cap.

With the results shown by the aforementioned time-tested strategies, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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