Is COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) going to take off soon? Money managers are turning bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets moved up by 5 in recent months.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are many gauges investors can use to monitor the equity markets. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can outpace the broader indices by a significant margin (see just how much).
Just as important, positive insider trading activity is a second way to break down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are many motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the recent action regarding COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR).
What does the smart money think about COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 71% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.
Of the funds we track, Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital had the most valuable position in COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR), worth close to $49.9 million, comprising 1.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On Cadian Capital’s heels is Edward Gilhuly and Scott Stuart of Sageview Capital, with a $40.2 million position; the fund has 14% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include James A. Noonan’s Pivot Point Capital, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, initiated the biggest position in COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR). Royce & Associates had 3.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also made a $1.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.
Insider trading activity in COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR)
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time period, COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR). These stocks are Performant Financial Corp (NASDAQ:PFMT), American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:APEI), Comverse Inc (NASDAQ:CNSI), Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT), and Examworks Group, Inc. (NYSE:EXAM). All of these stocks are in the business services industry and their market caps resemble SCOR’s market cap.
