Hedge Funds Are Selling DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV)

DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV) has experienced a decrease in hedge fund interest of late.

To most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, old financial tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey look at the elite of this group, around 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls most of the smart money’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their best picks, we have found a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 trumped the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as important, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are lots of reasons for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action surrounding DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV).

Hedge fund activity in DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV)

In preparation for this year, a total of 22 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy 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 DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV), worth close to $95 million, accounting for 2% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is International Value Advisers, managed by Charles de Vaulx, which held a $70 million position; the fund has 1.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management and Joshua Friedman and Mitchell Julis’s Canyon Capital Advisors.

Since DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV) has faced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that elected to cut their entire stakes in Q4. Interestingly, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC sold off the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, totaling close to $47 million in stock.. David Harding’s fund, Winton Capital Management, also dumped its stock, about $3 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How have insiders been trading DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV) has seen 2 unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results exhibited by the aforementioned research, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and DeVry Inc. (NYSE:DV) is an important part of this process.

Click here to learn more about Insider Monkey’s Hedge Fund Newsletter

Insider Monkey’s small-cap strategy returned 29.2% between September 2012 and February 2013 versus 8.7% for the S&P 500 index. Try it now by clicking the link above.