Ballantyne Strong Inc (BTN): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Ballantyne Strong Inc (NYSEAMEX:BTN) was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. BTN shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund sentiment of late. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with BTN positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the eyes of most investors, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, old investment vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the upper echelon of this group, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by tracking their top investments, we have figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of reasons for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the key action encompassing Ballantyne Strong Inc (NYSEAMEX:BTN).

Hedge fund activity in Ballantyne Strong Inc (NYSEAMEX:BTN)

Heading into 2013, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, John W. Rogers’s Ariel Investments had the largest position in Ballantyne Strong Inc (NYSEAMEX:BTN), worth close to $3.2 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On Ariel Investments’s heels is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $1.5 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

How are insiders trading Ballantyne Strong Inc (NYSEAMEX:BTN)?

Insider buying is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time period, Ballantyne Strong Inc (NYSEAMEX:BTN) has seen 3 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).