Hedge Funds Are Selling American Public Education, Inc. (APEI)

Seeing as American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:APEI) has witnessed a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there is a sect of money managers that elected to cut their full holdings in the third quarter. Intriguingly, D E Shaw dumped the biggest investment of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $0.7 million in stock. Peter Muller’s fund, PDT Partners, also cut its stock, about $0.4 million worth of shares. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 fund in the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:APEI) but similarly valued. These stocks are DXP Enterprises Inc (NASDAQ:DXPE), Varonis Systems Inc (NASDAQ:VRNS), Casa Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CARA), and Agenus Inc (NASDAQ:AGEN). This group of stocks’ market valuations is similar to American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:APEI)’s market valuation.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $45 million. That figure was $32 million in American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:APEI)’s case. Agenus Inc (NASDAQ:AGEN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Varonis Systems Inc (NASDAQ:VRNS) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:APEI) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard, Agenus Inc (NASDAQ:AGEN) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.