Is Virtus Investment Partners Inc (VRTS) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

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Is Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS) undervalued? Prominent investors are turning bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets rose by 5 in recent months.

According to most market participants, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open today, we choose to focus on the upper echelon of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by monitoring their best equity investments, we have revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS)Equally as key, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the world of equities. There are many incentives for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a gander at the latest action encompassing Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS).

What have hedge funds been doing with Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 71% from the previous quarter.

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have jumped into Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS) headfirst. Sirios Capital Management, managed by John Brennan, assembled the most outsized position in Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS). Sirios Capital Management had 5.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors also initiated a $1.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital, SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors, and Mike Vranos’s Ellington.

Insider trading activity in Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS)

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS). These stocks are Financial Engines Inc (NASDAQ:FNGN), Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE:EVR), WisdomTree Investments, Inc. (NASDAQ:WETF), Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE:CNS), and Gamco Investors Inc. (NYSE:GBL). This group of stocks are the members of the asset management industry and their market caps resemble VRTS’s market cap.

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