Is it smart to be bullish on LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN)?
Now, according to many investors, hedge funds are assumed to be useless, outdated investment tools of a forgotten age. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open currently, this site aim at the elite of this club, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group controls the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by tracking their highest quality investments, we’ve spotted a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find a sample of our picks).
Equally as necessary, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the investments you’re interested in. There are lots of incentives for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).
Furthermore, it’s important to examine the recent info for LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN).
What does the smart money think about LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN)?
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 43% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.
As industrywide interest increased, specific money managers have jumped into LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN) headfirst. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, assembled the most valuable position in LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN). Citadel Investment Group had 2.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Spencer M. Waxman’s Shannon River Fund Management also initiated a $2.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Jason F. Harris’s Kendall Square Capital, Mario Cibelli’s Marathon Partners, and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management.
Insider trading activity in LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN)
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN). These stocks are Team, Inc. (NYSE:TISI), RPX Corp (NASDAQ:RPXC), Insperity Inc (NYSE:NSP), WNS (Holdings) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:WNS), and InnerWorkings, Inc. (NASDAQ:INWK). This group of stocks are in the business services industry and their market caps are closest to LPSN’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Team, Inc. (NYSE:TISI) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| RPX Corp (NASDAQ:RPXC) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Insperity Inc (NYSE:NSP) | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| WNS (Holdings) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:WNS) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| InnerWorkings, Inc. (NASDAQ:INWK) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results explained by Insider Monkey’s research, average investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
