In the financial world, there are a multitude of gauges investors can use to analyze stocks. A couple of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can beat the market by a healthy amount (see just how much).
Equally as necessary, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. There are plenty of stimuli for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors understand where to look (learn more here).
What’s more, it’s important to analyze the recent info about ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI).
Hedge fund activity in ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI)
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 36% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.
As aggregate interest spiked, particular hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Select Equity Group, managed by Robert Joseph Caruso, assembled the most valuable position in ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI). Select Equity Group had 80.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Blum’s Blum Capital Partners also made a $80.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ESI positions are SAC Subsidiary’s Sigma Capital Management, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, and Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack’s Nantahala Capital Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI)?
Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI). These stocks are Education Management Corp (NASDAQ:EDMC), GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX), Franklin Covey Co. (NYSE:FC), Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA), and Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE:UTI). All of these stocks are in the education & training services industry and their market caps resemble ESI’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Education Management Corp (NASDAQ:EDMC) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Franklin Covey Co. (NYSE:FC) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA) | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE:UTI) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns shown by our analyses, average investors must always track hedge fund and insider trading activity, and ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI) is no exception.
