Now, according to many traders, hedge funds are perceived as bloated, old investment tools of an era lost to time. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds trading currently, Insider Monkey focuses on the moguls of this group, about 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group controls the lion’s share of the smart money’s total assets, and by watching their highest quality picks, we’ve discovered a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat 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 trumped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find the details here).
Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to look at the investments you’re interested in. There are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s analyze the recent info about Premiere Global Services, Inc. (NYSE:PGI).
How have hedgies been trading Premiere Global Services, Inc. (NYSE:PGI)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the biggest position in Premiere Global Services, Inc. (NYSE:PGI). Royce & Associates has a $10.3 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Cardinal Capital, managed by Amy Minella, which held a $2.1 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.
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What do corporate executives and insiders think about Premiere Global Services, Inc. (NYSE:PGI)?
Insider buying is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, Premiere Global Services, Inc. (NYSE:PGI) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Premiere Global Services, Inc. (NYSE:PGI). These stocks are IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT), Lumos Networks Corp (NASDAQ:LMOS), RigNet Inc (NASDAQ:RNET), Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE:VG), and Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM). This group of stocks belong to the diversified communication services industry and their market caps are closest to PGI’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT) | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Lumos Networks Corp (NASDAQ:LMOS) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| RigNet Inc (NASDAQ:RNET) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE:VG) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns shown by the previously mentioned studies, regular investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Premiere Global Services, Inc. (NYSE:PGI) applies perfectly to this mantra.
