Here is What Hedge Funds Think About FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (FLT)

Page 1 of 2

Is FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT) a buy, sell, or hold? Money managers are becoming hopeful. The number of long hedge fund positions inched up by 10 recently.

To most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at present, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the masters of this club, close to 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees most of the smart money’s total asset base, and by tracking their highest performing equity investments, we have figured out a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. 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 started 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).

Equally as important, bullish insider trading activity is another way to break down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of reasons for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a glance at the latest action encompassing FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT).

How have hedgies been trading FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 35 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 40% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT)When looking at the hedgies we track, Tiger Global Management LLC, managed by Chase Coleman and Feroz Dewan, holds the most valuable position in FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT). Tiger Global Management LLC has a $237.7 million position in the stock, comprising 3.7% of its 13F portfolio. On Tiger Global Management LLC’s heels is Lee Ainslie of Maverick Capital, with a $168.1 million position; 2.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Jonathan Auerbach’s Hound Partners, Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management and Robert Pitts’s Steadfast Capital Management.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Steadfast Capital Management, managed by Robert Pitts, initiated the most outsized position in FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT). Steadfast Capital Management had 134.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Colin Hall and James Davidson’s Long Oar Global Investors also initiated a $18.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new FLT positions are John Thaler’s JAT Capital Management, Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital, and Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners.

How have insiders been trading FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 19 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT). These stocks are Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK), Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN), Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE:ADS), Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV), and Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS). All of these stocks are in the business services industry and their market caps are similar to FLT’s market cap.

Page 1 of 2