What Hedge Funds Think About IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are dozens of gauges investors can use to monitor stocks. Some of the most underrated 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 outclass the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as useful, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of incentives for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to examine the latest info about IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI).

How have hedgies been trading IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 35 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 17% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Columbus Circle Investors, managed by Donald Chiboucis, holds the most valuable position in IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI). Columbus Circle Investors has a $85.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.7% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, with a $85.1 million position; the fund has 1.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Jeffrey Tannenbaum’s Fir Tree, Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management and Amy Minella’s Cardinal Capital.

With a general bullishness amongst the titans, particular hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Columbus Circle Investors, managed by Donald Chiboucis, created the biggest position in IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI). Columbus Circle Investors had 85.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital also initiated a $85.1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new IACI investors: Jeffrey Tannenbaum’s Fir Tree, Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management, and Amy Minella’s Cardinal Capital.

How are insiders trading IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time frame, IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI). These stocks are Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY), Youku Tudou Inc (ADR) (NYSE:YOKU), AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL), and Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN). This group of stocks are in the internet information providers industry and their market caps resemble IACI’s market cap.