This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Mantech International Corp (MANT)

Is Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT) a good investment?

Now, according to many traders, hedge funds are seen as useless, old financial tools of an era lost to time. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open in present day, Insider Monkey focuses on the masters of this group, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group has its hands on the majority of the smart money’s total assets, and by paying attention to their highest quality picks, we’ve formulated a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. 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 33 percentage points in 11 months (find a sample of our picks).

Equally as crucial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to look at the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are many incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Thus, we’re going to analyze the latest info surrounding Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT).

What does the smart money think about Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 33% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT)When using filings from the hedgies we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the largest position in Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT), worth close to $94.4 million, accounting for 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is David Abrams of Abrams Capital Management, with a $46.2 million position; the fund has 2.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management, Mark Travis’s Intrepid Capital Management and David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management.

As one would understandably expect, certain money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, assembled the biggest position in Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT). Royce & Associates had 94.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Abrams’s Abrams Capital Management also initiated a $46.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new MANT investors: Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management, Mark Travis’s Intrepid Capital Management, and David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management.

How are insiders trading Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time period, Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT). These stocks are Intralinks Holdings Inc (NYSE:IL), Sourcefire, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIRE), Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC), KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW), and AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA). This group of stocks belong to the security software & services industry and their market caps are similar to MANT’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Intralinks Holdings Inc (NYSE:IL) 16 0 0
Sourcefire, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIRE) 13 0 0
Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC) 9 0 0
KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:KEYW) 9 0 0
AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASIA) 9 0 0

Using the returns explained by our research, regular investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Mantech International Corp (NASDAQ:MANT) is no exception.

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Hedge Funds Are Dumping Mantech International Corp (MANT)

Insider Trading Activity

Hedge Fund Activity