This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Higher One Holdings, Inc (ONE)

Higher One Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ONE)Higher One Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ONE) has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late.

To most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the aristocrats of this club, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by monitoring their top investments, we have discovered a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced 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 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. Obviously, there are lots of incentives for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if investors know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action surrounding Higher One Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ONE).

How have hedgies been trading Higher One Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ONE)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 22% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Glenn Greenberg’s Brave Warrior Capital had the most valuable position in Higher One Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ONE), worth close to $56.9 million, comprising 3% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Vinit Bodas of Deccan Value Advisors, with a $30.7 million position; 12.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Gilchrist Berg’s Water Street Capital.

Now, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, initiated the most outsized position in Higher One Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ONE). Renaissance Technologies had 2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital also made a $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new ONE position is Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

How are insiders trading Higher One Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ONE)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Higher One Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ONE) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Higher One Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ONE) is an important part of this process.

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