SINA Corp (SINA): This Little-Known Metric May Change Your Mind

SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA) was in 19 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. SINA has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 23 hedge funds in our database with SINA positions at the end of the previous quarter.

If you’d ask most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the bigwigs of this group, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their best picks, we have unsheathed a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to break down the marketplace. There are plenty of motivations for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Now, let’s take a glance at the latest action encompassing SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA).

Hedge fund activity in SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA)

At year’s end, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -17% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Platinum Asset Management, managed by Kerr Neilson, holds the most valuable position in SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA). Platinum Asset Management has a $242.8 million position in the stock, comprising 5.4% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Joho Capital, managed by Robert Karr, which held a $59.4 million position; 7.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Brian Kelly’s Asian Century Quest, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Seeing as SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA) has experienced falling interest from the smart money, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies who were dropping their entire stakes heading into 2013. Interestingly, Douglas Dillard Jr. and Raj D. Venkatesan’s Standard Pacific Capital sold off the biggest position of the 450+ funds we monitor, comprising about $52.8 million in stock.. John Thaler’s fund, JAT Capital Management, also cut its stock, about $51.8 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds heading into 2013.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA). These stocks are NetEase, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:NTES), ExactTarget Inc (NYSE:ET), J2 Global Inc (NASDAQ:JCOM), and The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTI). All of these stocks are in the internet software & services industry and their market caps resemble SINA’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds