This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy CRA International, Inc. (CRAI)

Page 1 of 2

CRA International, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAI) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. CRAI investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with CRAI holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

At the moment, there are tons of indicators market participants can use to monitor the equity markets. Some of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can beat the market by a solid amount (see just how much).

VINIK ASSET MANAGEMENT

Just as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are many incentives for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a look at the key action regarding CRA International, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAI).

Hedge fund activity in CRA International, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAI)

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the most valuable position in CRA International, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAI), worth close to $35.4 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is John Overdeck and David Siegel of Two Sigma Advisors, with a $0.8 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Bryn Mawr Capital, managed by Ken Gray and Steve Walsh, established the most valuable position in CRA International, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAI). Bryn Mawr Capital had 0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also made a $0.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

How have insiders been trading CRA International, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAI)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, CRA International, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAI) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to CRA International, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAI). These stocks are ICF International Inc (NASDAQ:ICFI), Resources Connection, Inc. (NASDAQ:RECN), Standard Parking Corporation (NASDAQ:STAN), Hill International Inc (NYSE:HIL), and The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCKT). This group of stocks are the members of the management services industry and their market caps match CRAI’s market cap.

Page 1 of 2