Should You Avoid MAXIMUS, Inc. (MMS)?

Is MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE:MMS) the right pick for your portfolio? The smart money is turning less bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience.

To the average investor, there are many metrics investors can use to monitor Mr. Market. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as important, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the world of equities. There are a number of motivations for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action regarding MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE:MMS).

What does the smart money think about MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE:MMS)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE:MMS), worth close to $69.5 million, accounting for 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Daruma Asset Management, managed by Mariko Gordon, which held a $67.1 million position; the fund has 4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Insider trading activity in MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE:MMS)

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE:MMS) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE:MMS). These stocks are Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE:LPS), RR Donnelley & Sons Co (NASDAQ:RRD), Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (USA) (NYSE:RBA), HMS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:HMSY), and WEX Inc (NYSE:WXS). This group of stocks are in the business services industry and their market caps match MMS’s market cap.