Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (OMEX): Insiders Are Buying, Should You?

Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (NASDAQ:OMEX) investors should be aware of an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

In the eyes of most market participants, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the crème de la crème of this group, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their top investments, we have unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year 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 outclassed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. Obviously, there are many incentives for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a glance at the latest action encompassing Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (NASDAQ:OMEX).

How have hedgies been trading Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (NASDAQ:OMEX)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 50% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

Of the funds we track, Manatuck Hill Partners, managed by Mark Broach, holds the biggest position in Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (NASDAQ:OMEX). Manatuck Hill Partners has a $4.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, which held a $1.4 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include Noam Gottesman’s GLG Partners, Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital and Douglas T. Granat’s Trigran Investments.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Trigran Investments, managed by Douglas T. Granat, established the biggest position in Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (NASDAQ:OMEX). Trigran Investments had 0.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (NASDAQ:OMEX)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (NASDAQ:OMEX) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (NASDAQ:OMEX). These stocks are TravelCenters of America LLC (NYSEAMEX:TA), Zagg Inc (NASDAQ:ZAGG), West Marine, Inc. (NASDAQ:WMAR), XO Group Inc (NYSE:XOXO), and CSS Industries, Inc. (NYSE:CSS). This group of stocks are in the specialty retail, other industry and their market caps resemble OMEX’s market cap.