Should You Buy DeVry Inc. (DV)?

To the average investor, there are tons of gauges shareholders can use to watch their holdings. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as useful, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to look at the financial markets. There are a variety of incentives for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Thus, we’re going to examine the latest info for DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV).

How have hedgies been trading DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 22 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 38% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Ariel Investments, managed by John W. Rogers, holds the most valuable position in DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV). Ariel Investments has a $115.4 million position in the stock, comprising 1.9% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by International Value Advisers, managed by Charles de Vaulx, which held a $87.7 million position; the fund has 2.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC, Clifton S. Robbins’s Blue Harbour Group and James Crichton and Adam Weiss’s Scout Capital Management.

As aggregate interest spiked, particular hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Ariel Investments, managed by John W. Rogers, initiated the most valuable position in DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV). Ariel Investments had 115.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Charles de Vaulx’s International Value Advisers also initiated a $87.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new DV positions are Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC, Clifton S. Robbins’s Blue Harbour Group, and James Crichton and Adam Weiss’s Scout Capital Management.

How have insiders been trading DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time frame, DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, 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 DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV). These stocks are TAL Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XRS), K12 Inc. (NYSE:LRN), Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE), The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO), and Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL). This group of stocks belong to the education & training services industry and their market caps match DV’s market cap.