Is Primus Telecommunications (NYSE:PTGI) worth your attention right now? Money managers are in a bearish mood. The number of long hedge fund bets stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience.
In the financial world, there are tons of methods market participants can use to analyze the equity markets. Some of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a superb amount (see just how much).
Just as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of motivations for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you know what to do (learn more here).
Now, let’s take a look at the key action encompassing Primus Telecommunications (NYSE:PTGI).
How are hedge funds trading Primus Telecommunications (NYSE:PTGI)?
At year’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly.
Of the funds we track, Eric Edidin and Josh Lobel’s Archer Capital Management had the biggest position in Primus Telecommunications (NYSE:PTGI), worth close to $11.7 million, comprising 1.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Raptor Capital Management, managed by James Pallotta, which held a $9.5 million position; the fund has 5.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Francis Chou’s Chou Associates Management, Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Primus Telecommunications (NYSE:PTGI)?
Insider buying is most useful when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, Primus Telecommunications (NYSE:PTGI) 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 Primus Telecommunications (NYSE:PTGI). These stocks are Otelco, Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:OTT), General Communication, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCMA), and Elephant Talk Communications Corp (NYSEAMEX:ETAK). This group of stocks are in the long distance carriers industry and their market caps are similar to PTGI’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Otelco, Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:OTT) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| General Communication, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCMA) | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Elephant Talk Communications Corp (NYSEAMEX:ETAK) | 1 | 1 | 2 |
With the results shown by the aforementioned time-tested strategies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Primus Telecommunications (NYSE:PTGI) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
