Versar Inc. (NYSEAMEX:VSR) investors should be aware of an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately.
If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are seen as slow, outdated investment tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the aristocrats of this club, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by tracking their top picks, we have revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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 outclassed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of reasons for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a gander at the key action regarding Versar Inc. (NYSEAMEX:VSR).
What does the smart money think about Versar Inc. (NYSEAMEX:VSR)?
Heading into 2013, a total of 4 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 33% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.
As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Platinum Management, managed by Mark A. Nordlicht, created the most outsized position in Versar Inc. (NYSEAMEX:VSR). Platinum Management had $0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Versar Inc. (NYSEAMEX:VSR)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, Versar Inc. (NYSEAMEX:VSR) has experienced 3 unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Versar Inc. (NYSEAMEX:VSR). These stocks are ENGlobal Corp (NASDAQ:ENG), Lime Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LIME), UniTek Global Services Inc. (NASDAQ:UNTK), and WidePoint Corporation (NYSEAMEX:WYY). This group of stocks belong to the technical services industry and their market caps resemble VSR’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| ENGlobal Corp (NASDAQ:ENG) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Lime Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LIME) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| UniTek Global Services Inc. (NASDAQ:UNTK) | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| WidePoint Corporation (NYSEAMEX:WYY) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
With the returns demonstrated by our research, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Versar Inc. (NYSEAMEX:VSR) is no exception.
