Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund interest recently.
In today’s marketplace, there are plenty of methods investors can use to watch publicly traded companies. Two of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those whofollow the best picks of the top money managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a significant margin (see just how much).
Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are many reasons for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if investors understand where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, it’s important to take a gander at the recent action regarding Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL).
How are hedge funds trading Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 23 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 28% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.
According to our comprehensive database, Yacktman Asset Management, managed by Donald Yacktman, holds the largest position in Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL). Yacktman Asset Management has a $156 million position in the stock, comprising 0.9% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Richard S. Pzena of Pzena Investment Management, with a $149 million position; the fund has 1.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have jumped into Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) headfirst. LMR Partners, managed by Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold, assembled the biggest position in Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL). LMR Partners had 4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new APOL positions are Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, Mike Vranos’ Ellington, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s strategies, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
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