Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Is Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) ready to raly soon? Investors who are in the know are reducing their bets on the stock. The number of long hedge fund bets retreated by 7 lately.

To most market participants, hedge funds are seen as slow, old financial tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the top tier of this club, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls the lion’s share of the smart money’s total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their best stock picks, we have uncovered a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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 topped the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (check out a sample of our picks).

Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P)

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are many reasons for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action encompassing Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P).

How have hedgies been trading Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P)?

At year’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -33% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Crosslink Capital, managed by Seymour Sy Kaufman and Michael Stark, holds the most valuable position in Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P). Crosslink Capital has a $308 million position in the stock, comprising 34.4% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Chase Coleman and Feroz Dewan of Tiger Global Management LLC, with a $78 million position; 1.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers that hold long positions include Robert Pitts’s Steadfast Capital Management, Mariko Gordon’s Daruma Asset Management and Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management.

Seeing as Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) has faced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few hedge funds that slashed their positions entirely heading into 2013. Intriguingly, John Thaler’s JAT Capital Management dumped the largest position of the 450+ funds we watch, valued at an estimated $22 million in stock.. Eric Bannasch’s fund, Cadian Capital, also said goodbye to its stock, about $8 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 7 funds heading into 2013.

How are insiders trading Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results demonstrated by our tactics, retail investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) is no exception.

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