Should You Avoid Unisys Corporation (UIS)?

To the average investor, there are dozens of gauges market participants can use to monitor stocks. Some of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as necessary, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to look at the stock market universe. There are lots of stimuli for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if investors know where to look (learn more here).

What’s more, let’s analyze the newest info about Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS).

What have hedge funds been doing with Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -16% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

According to our 13F database, SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, holds the biggest position in Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS). SAC Capital Advisors has a $32.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by James H. Litinsky of JHL Capital Group, with a $29.2 million position; 4.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Matthew Knauer and Mina Faltas’s Nokota Management.

Judging by the fact that Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS) has faced declining interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, logic holds that there were a few fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely last quarter. Intriguingly, Alok Agrawal’s Bloom Tree Partners cut the biggest stake of all the hedgies we track, worth close to $7.4 million in stock. Michael Johnston’s fund, Steelhead Partners, also dropped its stock, about $3.9 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds last quarter.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS). These stocks are Acxiom Corporation (NASDAQ:ACXM), Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYKE), Radware Ltd. (NASDAQ:RDWR), iGATE Corporation (NASDAQ:IGTE), and EPAM Systems Inc (NYSE:EPAM). All of these stocks are in the information technology services industry and their market caps resemble UIS’s market cap.