Should You Avoid GP Strategies Corporation (GPX)?

In the financial world, there are a multitude of metrics shareholders can use to analyze stocks. A duo of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can trounce the market by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Just as key, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the financial markets. Obviously, there are plenty of incentives for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to study the latest info for GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX).

What have hedge funds been doing with GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -11% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Dan Friedberg’s Sagard Capital Partners Management Corp had the most valuable position in GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX), worth close to $83.6 million, accounting for 29.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On Sagard Capital Partners Management Corp’s heels is Manatuck Hill Partners, managed by Mark Broach, which held a $27.7 million position; 3.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Peter S. Park’s Park West Asset Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Judging by the fact that GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX) has faced a fall in interest from upper-tier hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few hedge funds who sold off their positions entirely last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management dropped the biggest stake of all the hedgies we key on, totaling an estimated $3.1 million in stock, and Israel Englander of Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.6 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds last quarter.

How have insiders been trading GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time period, GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX). These stocks are ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI), Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI), Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA), Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA), and Education Management Corp (NASDAQ:EDMC). This group of stocks are in the education & training services industry and their market caps resemble GPX’s market cap.

Using the results shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, regular investors must always track hedge fund and insider trading activity, and GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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