Is Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL) a buy, sell, or hold? Money managers are getting more optimistic. The number of long hedge fund bets improved by 2 recently.
In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of methods investors can use to track their holdings. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can beat the S&P 500 by a significant margin (see just how much).
Just as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are lots of stimuli for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” understand what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a gander at the key action regarding Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL).
What does the smart money think about Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 44 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 5% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.
Of the funds we track, Christian Leone’s Luxor Capital Group had the largest position in Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL), worth close to $144.5 million, accounting for 2.8% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Rob Citrone of Discovery Capital Management, with a $96.2 million position; the fund has 1.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include J Kevin Kenny Jr’s Emerging Sovereign Group, Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management and Brian Kelly’s Asian Century Quest.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Moore Global Investments, managed by Louis Bacon, initiated the most valuable call position in Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL). Moore Global Investments had 58.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Roberto Mignone’s Bridger Management also initiated a $42 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new MPEL investors: John Wu’s Sureview Capital, George Soros’s Soros Fund Management, and Abby Flamholz and Yehuda Blinder’s ADAR Investment Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero 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 Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL). These stocks are Penn National Gaming, Inc (NASDAQ:PENN), Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL), MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM), Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL), and Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN). All of these stocks are in the resorts & casinos industry and their market caps are similar to MPEL’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Penn National Gaming, Inc (NASDAQ:PENN) | 31 | 3 | 8 |
| Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) | 36 | 0 | 9 |
| MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) | 37 | 0 | 3 |
| Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL) | 26 | 0 | 9 |
| Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN) | 36 | 0 | 6 |
With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s studies, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
