Should You Avoid Mistras Group, Inc. (MG)?

Is Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG) a buy, sell, or hold? Prominent investors are taking a pessimistic view. The number of bullish hedge fund positions fell by 2 recently.

In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of metrics shareholders can use to watch their holdings. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can beat the broader indices by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of stimuli for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action encompassing Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG).

Hedge fund activity in Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG)

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 4 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -33% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

Because Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG) has faced falling interest from the smart money, we can see that there exists a select few hedge funds that slashed their entire stakes at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies dumped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, comprising about $0.6 million in stock., and Israel Englander of Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.3 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds at the end of the year.

How have insiders been trading Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG)?

Insider buying is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG). These stocks are Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK), Michael Baker Corp (NYSEAMEX:BKR), Furmanite Corporation (NYSE:FRM), CACI International Inc (NYSE:CACI), and Engility Holdings Inc (NYSE:EGL). All of these stocks are in the technical services industry and their market caps are closest to MG’s market cap.

With the returns shown by the aforementioned research, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG) is an important part of this process.

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