This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (IILG)

Is Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG) the right investment to pursue these days? The smart money is taking a bullish view. The number of long hedge fund positions inched up by 2 lately.

In the financial world, there are a multitude of indicators market participants can use to analyze Mr. Market. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can beat the market by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a peek at the recent action regarding Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG).

What does the smart money think about Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 22% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Wallace Weitz’s Wallace R. Weitz & Co. had the largest position in Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG), worth close to $54.6 million, comprising 2.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jeffrey Gates of Gates Capital Management, with a $51.6 million position; the fund has 2.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Brian Bares’s Bares Capital Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Now, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, assembled the most outsized position in Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG). Citadel Investment Group had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Mike Vranos’s Ellington also initiated a $0.6 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new IILG position is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG)?

Insider buying is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG). These stocks are Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT), VistaPrint Limited (NASDAQ:VPRT), ABM Industries, Inc. (NYSE:ABM), Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE:HPY), and Cardtronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATM). All of these stocks are in the business services industry and their market caps resemble IILG’s market cap.