Is Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) a buy here? Hedge funds are taking a pessimistic view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets were cut by 1 lately.
According to most market participants, hedge funds are seen as slow, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we at Insider Monkey look at the crème de la crème of this club, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by paying attention to their best stock picks, we have discovered a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).
Now, it’s important to take a gander at the key action surrounding Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS).
Hedge fund activity in Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS)
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -6% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.
According to our comprehensive database, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the biggest position in Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS), worth close to $103.3 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors, with a $87 million position; the fund has 1.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Matthew Iorio’s White Elm Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Seeing as Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there were a few hedgies that decided to sell off their full holdings last quarter. Interestingly, John Kleinheinz’s Kleinheinz Capital Partners dropped the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, totaling close to $13.9 million in stock., and Louis Bacon of Moore Global Investments was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $6.1 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds last quarter.
Insider trading activity in Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS)
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) has experienced 2 unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS). These stocks are Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc (NYSE:NSM), Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc (NYSE:IVR), KKR Financial Holdings LLC (NYSE:KFN), Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS), and Walter Investment Management Corp (NYSE:WAC). All of these stocks are in the mortgage investment industry and their market caps match ASPS’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc (NYSE:NSM) | 21 | 1 | 0 |
| Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc (NYSE:IVR) | 14 | 1 | 0 |
| KKR Financial Holdings LLC (NYSE:KFN) | 18 | 2 | 3 |
| Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:HLSS) | 16 | 5 | 0 |
| Walter Investment Management Corp (NYSE:WAC) | 20 | 0 | 8 |
With the results demonstrated by our studies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) applies perfectly to this mantra.
