Perion Network Ltd (PERI): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Is Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI) ready to rally soon? The smart money is getting more optimistic. The number of long hedge fund positions inched up by 1 lately.

To the average investor, there are tons of gauges market participants can use to watch publicly traded companies. A couple of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of incentives for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action regarding Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI).

What does the smart money think about Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 25% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Clint Coghill’s Coghill Capital Management had the largest position in Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI), worth close to $5 million, comprising 3.4% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by McKinley Capital Management, managed by Robert B. Gillam, which held a $1.4 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. McKinley Capital Management, managed by Robert B. Gillam, initiated the largest position in Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI). McKinley Capital Management had 1.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $0.5 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

How have insiders been trading Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI). These stocks are Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ:CALD), Pactera Technology Intl Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:PACT), Official Payments Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:OPAY), Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ:DWCH), and Velti Plc (NASDAQ:VELT). This group of stocks belong to the business software & services industry and their market caps resemble PERI’s market cap.