Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (CLUB): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?: Life Time Fitness, Inc. (LTM), International Speedway Corporation (ISCA)

Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB) has experienced a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB)In today’s marketplace, there are plenty of gauges shareholders can use to analyze publicly traded companies. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outclass the broader indices by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of motivations for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a gander at the key action surrounding Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB).

Hedge fund activity in Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB)

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Farallon Capital, managed by Thomas Steyer, holds the most valuable position in Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB). Farallon Capital has a $43 million position in the stock, comprising 1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $7 million position; 0.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Brett Hendrickson’s Nokomis Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.

Due to the fact that Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB) has experienced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few fund managers who sold off their entire stakes in Q4. At the top of the heap, Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management said goodbye to the largest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, comprising an estimated $2 million in stock.. Mike Vranos’s fund, Ellington, also dumped its stock, about $0 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How have insiders been trading Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB). These stocks are Life Time Fitness, Inc. (NYSE:LTM), International Speedway Corporation (NASDAQ:ISCA), Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK), Dover Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:DVD), and Bowl America Incorporated (NYSEAMEX:BWL-A). All of these stocks are in the sporting activities industry and their market caps are similar to CLUB’s market cap.

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Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Life Time Fitness, Inc. (NYSE:LTM) 5 1 4
International Speedway Corporation (NASDAQ:ISCA) 12 0 0
Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK) 5 1 1
Dover Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:DVD) 6 1 0
Bowl America Incorporated (NYSEAMEX:BWL-A) 0 0

With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB) is no exception.

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