Here is What Hedge Funds Think About HomeAway, Inc. (AWAY)

Is it smart to be bullish on HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY)?

To the average investor, there are many indicators market participants can use to watch the equity markets. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can outclass the market by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to analyze the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are lots of incentives for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

Thus, let’s analyze the latest info for HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY).

Hedge fund activity in HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY)

Heading into Q3, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -24% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, JAT Capital Management, managed by John Thaler, holds the biggest position in HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY). JAT Capital Management has a $38.6 million position in the stock, comprising 1.5% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which held a $15.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds with similar optimism include Seymour Sy Kaufman and Michael Stark’s Crosslink Capital, Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Because HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY) has experienced dropping sentiment from upper-tier hedge fund managers, we can see that there is a sect of hedge funds that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. At the top of the heap, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors said goodbye to the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we track, worth an estimated $14.9 million in stock, and SAC Subsidiary of Sigma Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $11.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 5 funds last quarter.

What have insiders been doing with HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time period, HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWAY). These stocks are IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI), ValueClick Inc (NASDAQ:VCLK), AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL), Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), and Youku Tudou Inc (ADR) (NYSE:YOKU). This group of stocks are in the internet information providers industry and their market caps are closest to AWAY’s market cap.