Should You Avoid LivePerson, Inc. (LPSN)?

LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. LPSN has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with LPSN holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

To most traders, hedge funds are seen as unimportant, old financial tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at present, we choose to focus on the aristocrats of this club, around 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their top equity investments, we have determined a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are lots of reasons for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action encompassing LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN).

Hedge fund activity in LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN)

Heading into Q2, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -22% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Act II Capital, managed by Dennis Leibowitz, holds the most valuable position in LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN). Act II Capital has a $9.4 million position in the stock, comprising 2.4% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $5.1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish include Spencer M. Waxman’s Shannon River Fund Management, Philip Hempleman’s Ardsley Partners and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Judging by the fact that LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers that elected to cut their full holdings heading into Q2. Interestingly, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies dropped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, valued at an estimated $2.7 million in stock.. Drew Cupps’s fund, Cupps Capital Management, also cut its stock, about $1.7 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds heading into Q2.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN) has experienced 4 unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN). These stocks are Team, Inc. (NYSE:TISI), RPX Corp (NASDAQ:RPXC), Insperity Inc (NYSE:NSP), WNS (Holdings) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:WNS), and InnerWorkings, Inc. (NASDAQ:INWK). All of these stocks are in the business services industry and their market caps are similar to LPSN’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by our time-tested strategies, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN) is no exception.

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