Is Hyde Park Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ:HPAC) a buy here? The smart money is becoming more confident. The number of long hedge fund positions moved up by 1 lately.
In the eyes of most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the masters of this club, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by tracking their best equity investments, we have determined a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (check out a sample of our picks).
Equally as important, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. There are lots of motivations for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the key action regarding Hyde Park Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ:HPAC).
How have hedgies been trading Hyde Park Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ:HPAC)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 20% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.
According to our comprehensive database, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the most valuable position in Hyde Park Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ:HPAC). AQR Capital Management has a $14.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Fir Tree, managed by Jeffrey Tannenbaum, which held a $7.5 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, Thomas Lenox Kempner’s Davidson Kempner and Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments.
Consequently, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Highbridge Capital Management, managed by Glenn Russell Dubin, initiated the biggest position in Hyde Park Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ:HPAC). Highbridge Capital Management had 5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
What have insiders been doing with Hyde Park Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ:HPAC)?
Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, Hyde Park Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ:HPAC) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, 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 Hyde Park Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ:HPAC). These stocks are Poage Bankshares Inc (NASDAQ:PBSK), New Mountain Finance Corp. (NYSE:NMFC), SCG Financial Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:SCGQ), and Blue Wolf Mongolia Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:MNGL). This group of stocks are in the conglomerates industry and their market caps resemble HPAC’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Poage Bankshares Inc (NASDAQ:PBSK) | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| New Mountain Finance Corp. (NYSE:NMFC) | 6 | 7 | 0 |
| SCG Financial Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:SCGQ) | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Blue Wolf Mongolia Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:MNGL) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
With the returns shown by the aforementioned studies, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Hyde Park Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ:HPAC) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
