Should Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH) investors track the following data?
Now, according to many investors, hedge funds are assumed to be bloated, old investment tools of a forgotten age. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds in operation today, this site aim at the masters of this group, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group oversees most of the smart money’s total capital, and by watching their best picks, we’ve unsheathed a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the world of equities. There are a variety of incentives for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, it’s important to examine the recent info surrounding Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH).
How are hedge funds trading Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH)?
At Q2’s end, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 21% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.
Now, specific money managers have jumped into Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH) headfirst. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, established the largest position in Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH). Royce & Associates had 42.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $35.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Jesse Ro’s Tiger Legatus Capital, and Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH)?
Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH). These stocks are Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNCR), NIC Inc. (NASDAQ:EGOV), Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS), RealPage, Inc. (NASDAQ:RP), and Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS). This group of stocks are the members of the application software industry and their market caps are closest to MANH’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNCR) | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| NIC Inc. (NASDAQ:EGOV) | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| RealPage, Inc. (NASDAQ:RP) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADVS) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results explained by the previously mentioned strategies, average investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
