In the financial world, there are plenty of metrics market participants can use to analyze Mr. Market. A duo of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outperform the market by a superb margin (see just how much).
Just as integral, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of stimuli for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if you understand where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the key action surrounding Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG).
How have hedgies been trading Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)?
Heading into Q2, a total of 148 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 8% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital had the largest position in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), worth close to $1.1107 billion, accounting for 5.8% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Lansdowne Partners, managed by Paul Ruddock and Steve Heinz, which held a $635.4 million position; 8.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have jumped into Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) headfirst. Senator Investment Group, managed by Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin, established the most valuable call position in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). Senator Investment Group had 238.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Panayotis Takis Sparaggis’s Alkeon Capital Management also initiated a $234.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new GOOG positions are Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC, John Armitage’s Egerton Capital Limited, and Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital.
Insider trading activity in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). These stocks are Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX), LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). This group of stocks belong to the internet information providers industry and their market caps are closest to GOOG’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) | 40 | 0 | 13 |
| Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) | 66 | 0 | 3 |
| Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) | 29 | 0 | 0 |
| Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) | 49 | 0 | 9 |
With the results exhibited by our research, retail investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) applies perfectly to this mantra.
