To the average investor, there are plenty of gauges investors can use to watch stocks. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can outperform the market by a superb amount (see just how much).
Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the financial markets. There are a variety of motivations for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a gander at the recent action regarding Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS).
How are hedge funds trading Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS)?
Heading into Q2, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -6% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the largest position in Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS). Renaissance Technologies has a $107.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $83.2 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management and Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital.
Seeing as Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS) has witnessed declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there were a few hedgies that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management dropped the largest stake of the 450+ funds we watch, valued at close to $3.6 million in stock.. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s fund, Two Sigma Advisors, also said goodbye to its stock, about $3.1 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds heading into Q2.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 10 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 Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS). These stocks are Amdocs Limited (NYSE:DOX), NetSuite Inc (NYSE:N), Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA), Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:JKHY), and Solera Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLH). This group of stocks are the members of the business software & services industry and their market caps are closest to TSS’s market cap.
