Gleacher & Company Inc (NASDAQ:GLCH) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. GLCH investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with GLCH positions at the end of the previous quarter.
According to most traders, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, old investment vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, we choose to focus on the top tier of this club, close to 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group controls most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by tracking their highest performing picks, we have figured out a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, let’s take a glance at the recent action surrounding Gleacher & Company Inc (NASDAQ:GLCH).
How are hedge funds trading Gleacher & Company Inc (NASDAQ:GLCH)?
Heading into 2013, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 17% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.
According to our comprehensive database, Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies had the most valuable position in Gleacher & Company Inc (NASDAQ:GLCH), worth close to $2.7 million, accounting for 0.5% of its total 13F portfolio. On Harvest Capital Strategies’s heels is Hudson Bay Capital Management, managed by Sander Gerber, which held a $0.7 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Ryan Schaper’s Point Lobos Capital, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Point Lobos Capital, managed by Ryan Schaper, created the biggest position in Gleacher & Company Inc (NASDAQ:GLCH). Point Lobos Capital had 0.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new GLCH position is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
How are insiders trading Gleacher & Company Inc (NASDAQ:GLCH)?
Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, Gleacher & Company Inc (NASDAQ:GLCH) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Gleacher & Company Inc (NASDAQ:GLCH). These stocks are CIFC Corp (NASDAQ:CIFC), Artio Global Investors Inc. (NYSE:ART), Horizon Technology Finance Corp (NASDAQ:HRZN), U.S. Global Investors, Inc. (NASDAQ:GROW), and Value Line, Inc. (NASDAQ:VALU). This group of stocks are the members of the asset management industry and their market caps are similar to GLCH’s market cap.
