Hedge Funds Aren’t Too Excited About GP Strategies Corporation (GPX)

GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX) was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with GPX holdings at the end of the previous quarter, which is a bearish development in our experience.

In today’s marketplace, there are many methods market participants can use to analyze stocks. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see just how much).

Just as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a glance at the key action surrounding GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX).

How have hedgies been trading GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners had the largest position in GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX), worth close to $24 million, accounting for 3.5% of its total 13F portfolio. On Manatuck Hill Partners’s heels is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $19.2 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Phil Frohlich’s Prescott Group Capital Management and Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management.

Insider trading activity in GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX) has seen 2 unique insiders buying, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX). These stocks are ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI), Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI), Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA), Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA), and Education Management Corp (NASDAQ:EDMC). This group of stocks belong to the education & training services industry and their market caps match GPX’s market cap.