Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA) has experienced a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months.
In the eyes of most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, outdated investment tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the elite of this club, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their best stock picks, we have formulated a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed 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 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as key, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are many reasons for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors know where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, it’s important to take a glance at the latest action encompassing Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA).
What does the smart money think about Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA)?
At year’s end, a total of 44 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.
According to our comprehensive database, Coatue Management, managed by Philippe Laffont, holds the biggest position in Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA). Coatue Management has a $432 million position in the stock, comprising 7.1% of its 13F portfolio. On Coatue Management’s heels is John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital, with a $246 million position; the fund has 3.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital and Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital.
Due to the fact that Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA) has witnessed a declination in interest from the smart money, we can see that there exists a select few hedge funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely last quarter. At the top of the heap, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital dropped the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, worth close to $270 million in stock.. John Kleinheinz’s fund, Kleinheinz Capital Partners, also dumped its stock, about $27 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
How have insiders been trading Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA) is no exception.
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