Pike Electric Corporation (PIKE): Should You Buy?

Is Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE) the right investment to pursue these days? The best stock pickers are betting on the stock. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 8 lately.

In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the aristocrats of this group, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by monitoring their best equity investments, we have revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).

Just as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a gander at the latest action surrounding Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE).

How have hedgies been trading Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE)?

At year’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 160% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management had the largest position in Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE), worth close to $10.7 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $8.5 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. McKinley Capital Management, managed by Robert B. Gillam, created the biggest position in Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE). McKinley Capital Management had 1.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $0.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new PIKE positions are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, 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 Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE). These stocks are Quanta Services Inc (NYSE:PWR), Emcor Group Inc (NYSE:EME), Integrated Electrical Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:IESC), Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX), and MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG). This group of stocks are in the general contractors industry and their market caps match PIKE’s market cap.

With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s studies, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE) is no exception.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds