Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (HLSS): Insiders Are Buying, Should You?

Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS) has seen a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

In the financial world, there are plenty of gauges shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. Two of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outpace the market by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are many reasons for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if “monkeys” understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the latest action surrounding Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS).

What have hedge funds been doing with Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -27% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Pine River Capital Management, managed by Brian Taylor, holds the largest position in Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS). Pine River Capital Management has a $50.1 million position in the stock, comprising 1% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $30.8 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and John Murphy’s Alydar Capital.

Judging by the fact that Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS) has faced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there was a specific group of funds that elected to cut their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group said goodbye to the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, worth an estimated $25.9 million in stock., and Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser of Magnetar Capital was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $14.6 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 6 funds last quarter.

Insider trading activity in Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS)

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS) has experienced 5 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS). These stocks are Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc (NYSE:HTGC), HFF, Inc. (NYSE:HF), KKR Financial Holdings LLC (NYSE:KFN), Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS), and Walter Investment Management Corp (NYSE:WAC). All of these stocks are in the mortgage investment industry and their market caps are similar to HLSS’s market cap.