Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU): Insiders Are Dumping, Should You?

Is Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) a buy right now? Prominent investors are reducing their bets on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund positions retreated by 8 lately.

If you’d ask most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be underperforming, outdated investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, we look at the elite of this club, about 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group controls the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by monitoring their top investments, we have unearthed a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (explore the details and some picks here).

Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are many reasons for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a gander at the key action encompassing Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU).

Hedge fund activity in Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)

Heading into 2013, a total of 31 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -21% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Orbis Investment Management, managed by William B. Gray, holds the biggest position in Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU). Orbis Investment Management has a $570 million position in the stock, comprising 5.7% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Tiger Global Management LLC, with a $216 million position; the fund has 4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, William von Mueffling’s Cantillon Capital Management and Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management.

Due to the fact that Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of funds that elected to cut their full holdings at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Robert Karr’s Joho Capital dropped the largest investment of all the hedgies we track, valued at about $40 million in stock., and James Crichton and Adam Weiss of Scout Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $39 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 8 funds at the end of the year.

How are insiders trading Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned strategies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) is no exception.

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