IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT): Insiders Are Dumping, Should You? – RigNet Inc (NASDAQ:RNET), Cbeyond, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBEY)

IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT) has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months.

At the moment, there are many gauges shareholders can use to track their holdings. A duo of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can beat their index-focused peers by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Equally as integral, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are a number of stimuli for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action encompassing IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT).

What have hedge funds been doing with IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT)?

At year’s end, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 10% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT), worth close to $7 million, comprising 0% of its total 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Kahn Brothers, managed by Irving Kahn, which held a $6 million position; 0% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that are bullish include Jay Petschek and Steven Major’s Corsair Capital Management, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

As one would reasonably expect, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, assembled the largest position in IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT). Citadel Investment Group had 0 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new IDT position is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

How have insiders been trading IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT). These stocks are RigNet Inc (NASDAQ:RNET), Cbeyond, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBEY), Hawaiian Telcom HoldCo Inc (NASDAQ:HCOM), ORBCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:ORBC), and Lumos Networks Corp (NASDAQ:LMOS). This group of stocks are the members of the diversified communication services industry and their market caps are similar to IDT’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned tactics, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT) is an important part of this process.

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