What Do Smart Investors Think About Zynga Inc (ZNGA)?

Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) was in 27 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. ZNGA shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. There were 20 hedge funds in our database with ZNGA holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

According to most market participants, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the crème de la crème of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by monitoring their top equity investments, we have uncovered a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the S&P 500 index. 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 began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to break down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are a number of motivations for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the key action surrounding Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA).

Hedge fund activity in Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 27 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 35% from the previous quarter.

Now, key hedge funds have jumped into Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) headfirst. JANA Partners, managed by Barry Rosenstein, established the most valuable position in Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA). JANA Partners had 85.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Randall Smith’s Alden Global Capital also made a $15.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Gregory A. Weaver’s Invicta Capital Management, Spencer M. Waxman’s Shannon River Fund Management, and Paul Tanico’s Castlerock Asset Management.

What have insiders been doing with Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is no exception.

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