Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (PRIS): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (NYSE:PRIS) investors should be aware of a decrease in hedge fund sentiment lately.

If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be worthless, outdated financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading at the moment, we look at the crème de la crème of this club, about 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by keeping an eye on their top stock picks, we have discovered a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. 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 began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to break down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of stimuli for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a glance at the key action surrounding Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (NYSE:PRIS).

Hedge fund activity in Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (NYSE:PRIS)

Heading into 2013, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -17% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Whitney Tilson’s T2 Partners had the largest position in Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (NYSE:PRIS), worth close to $1.8 million, comprising 1.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Andy Redleaf of Whitebox Advisors, with a $1.5 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Whitney Tilson’s T2 Partners, Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Because Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (NYSE:PRIS) has witnessed falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there were a few hedge funds that slashed their entire stakes in Q4. At the top of the heap, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management said goodbye to the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we track, comprising close to $0.1 million in stock.. Andy Redleaf’s fund, Whitebox Advisors, also dropped its stock, about $0.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds in Q4.

What have insiders been doing with Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (NYSE:PRIS)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (NYSE:PRIS) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (NYSE:PRIS). These stocks are Digital Cinema Destinations Corp (NASDAQ:DCIN), IMAX Corporation (USA) (NYSE:IMAX), Ku6 Media Co Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:KUTV), World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE), and Bona Film Group Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:BONA). This group of stocks are in the entertainment – diversified industry and their market caps match PRIS’s market cap.

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (NYSE:PRIS) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds