MedAssets, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDAS) investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately.
To most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, outdated financial vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation today, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the upper echelon of this club, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by tracking their best investments, we have revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. There are lots of motivations for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).
Now, it’s important to take a gander at the key action encompassing MedAssets, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDAS).
What does the smart money think about MedAssets, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDAS)?
In preparation for this year, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 38% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Doug Silverman’s Senator Investment Group had the largest position in MedAssets, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDAS), worth close to $63 million, accounting for 1.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Columbus Circle Investors, managed by Donald Chiboucis, which held a $43 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Claus Moller’s P2 Capital Partners, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
Now, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, created the most valuable position in MedAssets, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDAS). AQR Capital Management had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new MDAS positions are Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, and Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about MedAssets, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDAS)?
Bullish insider trading is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, MedAssets, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDAS) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the results shown by our studies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and MedAssets, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDAS) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
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