Is Glu Mobile Inc. (GLUU) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) has seen a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late.

To the average investor, there are plenty of gauges market participants can use to monitor stocks. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of reasons for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a peek at the latest action encompassing Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU).

What have hedge funds been doing with Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -50% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly.

Of the funds we track, Archon Capital Management, managed by Constantinos J. Christofilis, holds the biggest position in Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU). Archon Capital Management has a $2.5 million position in the stock, comprising 1.3% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is J. Carlo Cannell of Cannell Capital, with a $1.1 million position; 0.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Judging by the fact that Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers who were dropping their entire stakes at the end of the first quarter. Interestingly, Matthew Drapkin and Steven R. Becker’s Becker Drapkin Management sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies we track, worth close to $1.8 million in stock.. D. E. Shaw’s fund, D E Shaw, also cut its stock, about $0.3 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 5 funds at the end of the first quarter.

How have insiders been trading Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU). These stocks are The9 Limited (ADR) (NASDAQ:NCTY), Perfect World Co., Ltd. (ADR) (NASDAQ:PWRD), Rosetta Stone Inc (NYSE:RST), KongZhong Corporation (ADR) (NASDAQ:KONG), and Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID). This group of stocks are in the multimedia & graphics software industry and their market caps resemble GLUU’s market cap.