Should You Avoid COMSCORE, Inc. (SCOR)?

COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. SCOR shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund sentiment lately. There were 13 hedge funds in our database with SCOR holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of indicators shareholders can use to track Mr. Market. Two of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can trounce the market by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Just as important, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are lots of stimuli for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a gander at the latest action encompassing COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR).

What have hedge funds been doing with COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -23% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

Of the funds we track, Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital had the most valuable position in COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR), worth close to $60.7 million, accounting for 1.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Sageview Capital, managed by Edward Gilhuly and Scott Stuart, which held a $49 million position; 15.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that are bullish include James A. Noonan’s Pivot Point Capital, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

Because COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) has faced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of funds that elected to cut their full holdings in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group cut the largest investment of the 450+ funds we monitor, totaling close to $1.1 million in stock.. Mike Vranos’s fund, Ellington, also dropped its stock, about $0.3 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds in Q1.

What have insiders been doing with COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time frame, COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR). These stocks are Performant Financial Corp (NASDAQ:PFMT), American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:APEI), Comverse Inc (NASDAQ:CNSI), Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT), and Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM). This group of stocks are the members of the business services industry and their market caps match SCOR’s market cap.

With the returns exhibited by our strategies, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) is an important part of this process.

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