Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Jamba, Inc. (JMBA)?

Jamba, Inc. (NASDAQ:JMBA) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. JMBA has seen an increase in hedge fund sentiment recently. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with JMBA holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the eyes of most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be underperforming, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the moguls of this club, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their highest performing picks, we have unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as integral, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of reasons for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a gander at the recent action encompassing Jamba, Inc. (NASDAQ:JMBA).

How are hedge funds trading Jamba, Inc. (NASDAQ:JMBA)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 43% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

Jamba, Inc. (NASDAQ:JMBA)When looking at the hedgies we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the most valuable position in Jamba, Inc. (NASDAQ:JMBA), worth close to $8.1 million, accounting for less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Glenn J. Krevlin of Glenhill Advisors, with a $5.2 million position; the fund has 0.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Bryn Mawr Capital, managed by Ken Gray and Steve Walsh, initiated the most valuable position in Jamba, Inc. (NASDAQ:JMBA). Bryn Mawr Capital had 0.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new JMBA positions are Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

How have insiders been trading Jamba, Inc. (NASDAQ:JMBA)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, Jamba, Inc. (NASDAQ:JMBA) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results exhibited by our research, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Jamba, Inc. (NASDAQ:JMBA) is no exception.

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