Progress Software Corporation (PRGS), RealPage, Inc. (RP): Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Manhattan Associates, Inc. (MANH)

Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH) investors should pay attention to a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently.

If you’d ask most market participants, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey look at the elite of this club, about 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees most of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their top equity investments, we have uncovered a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a 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 trumped the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).

Just as integral, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. There are a variety of motivations for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a gander at the key action encompassing Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH).

How have hedgies been trading Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -27% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH). Royce & Associates has a $32 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $19 million position; 0% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedgies that are bullish include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management and John Brennan’s Sirios Capital Management.

Seeing as Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH) has experienced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there were a few fund managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely at the end of the year. Interestingly, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management dropped the biggest investment of all the hedgies we monitor, worth an estimated $2 million in stock., and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds at the end of the year.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH)?

Insider buying is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH). These stocks are Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNCR), NIC Inc. (NASDAQ:EGOV), Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS), RealPage, Inc. (NASDAQ:RP), and Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS). This group of stocks belong to the application software industry and their market caps match MANH’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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