This Metric Says You Are Smart to Sell Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO) – ChinaEdu Corporation (ADR) (NASDAQ:CEDU), Corinthian Colleges Inc (NASDAQ:COCO)

Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. CECO shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund sentiment of late. There were 14 hedge funds in our database with CECO positions at the end of the previous quarter.

At the moment, there are a multitude of metrics shareholders can use to track the equity markets. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can outpace the market by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of motivations for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at the key action encompassing Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO).

How have hedgies been trading Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -21% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Richard Blum’s Blum Capital Partners had the most valuable position in Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO), worth close to $47 million, comprising 7.5% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, which held a $23 million position; 0% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Christopher Shackelton and Adam Gray’s Coliseum Capital, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Robert Pitts’s Steadfast Capital Management.

Since Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO) has experienced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of money managers who sold off their full holdings at the end of the year. Interestingly, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital cut the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we track, worth an estimated $1 million in stock.. Joel Greenblatt’s fund, Gotham Asset Management, also dumped its stock, about $1 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds at the end of the year.

How are insiders trading Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO). These stocks are Xueda Education Group (ADR) (NYSE:XUE), ChinaEdu Corporation (ADR) (NASDAQ:CEDU), Lincoln Educational Services Corporation (NASDAQ:LINC), Corinthian Colleges Inc (NASDAQ:COCO), and China Distance Education Hldgs Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:DL). This group of stocks belong to the education & training services industry and their market caps are similar to CECO’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by our studies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO) is an important part of this process.