Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT) was in 22 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. APKT investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund interest lately. There were 17 hedge funds in our database with APKT positions at the end of the previous quarter.
According to most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey look at the aristocrats of this group, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by paying attention to their top investments, we have come up with a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (check out a sample of our picks).
Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are many motivations for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).
With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a gander at the key action regarding Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT).
Hedge fund activity in Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT)
In preparation for this year, a total of 22 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 29% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.
Of the funds we track, Scopia Capital, managed by Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich, holds the most valuable position in Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT). Scopia Capital has a $20 million position in the stock, comprising 0.8% of its 13F portfolio. On Scopia Capital’s heels is Spencer M. Waxman of Shannon River Fund Management, with a $17 million position; 2.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers that hold long positions include Paul ReederáandáEdward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
As aggregate interest increased, key money managers have jumped into Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT) headfirst. Shannon River Fund Management, managed by Spencer M. Waxman, assembled the most valuable position in Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT). Shannon River Fund Management had 17 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors also made a $11 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital, Scott Fine and Peter Richards’s Empire Capital Management, and Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital.
What have insiders been doing with Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the returns shown by the aforementioned research, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT) applies perfectly to this mantra.
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