Korn/Ferry International (KFY): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

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Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY) was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. KFY investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 12 hedge funds in our database with KFY holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY)

If you’d ask most market participants, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, outdated investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds in operation today, we choose to focus on the crème de la crème of this group, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by watching their best investments, we have deciphered a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the world of equities. Obviously, there are lots of stimuli for an upper level exec to drop 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 method if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, let’s take a glance at the latest action encompassing Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY).

What have hedge funds been doing with Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 25% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY). Royce & Associates has a $35.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $5.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that hold long positions include Ken Grossman and Glen Schneider’s SG Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Matthew Lindenbaum’s Basswood Capital.

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. HBK Investments, managed by David Costen Haley, assembled the most valuable position in Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY). HBK Investments had 0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also made a $0.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new KFY positions are Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Krochuk’s GRT Capital Partners and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

How are insiders trading Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY) has experienced zero 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 Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY). These stocks are DICE HOLDINGS, INC. (NYSE:DHX), Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:KELYA), AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. (NYSE:AHS), Compass Diversified Holdings (NYSE:CODI), and Trueblue Inc (NYSE:TBI). All of these stocks are in the staffing & outsourcing services industry and their market caps resemble KFY’s market cap.

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