This Metric Says You Are Smart to Sell Pervasive Software Inc. (PVSW)

Pervasive Software Inc. (NASDAQ:PVSW) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently.

If you’d ask most traders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we at Insider Monkey look at the moguls of this group, about 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by tracking their highest performing investments, we have discovered a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the financial markets. Obviously, there are a number of incentives for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action regarding Pervasive Software Inc. (NASDAQ:PVSW).

What does the smart money think about Pervasive Software Inc. (NASDAQ:PVSW)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -11% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Pervasive Software Inc. (NASDAQ:PVSW). Royce & Associates has a $13.4 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, which held a $5.8 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and John Fichthorn’s Dialectic Capital Management.

Due to the fact that Pervasive Software Inc. (NASDAQ:PVSW) has experienced declining sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there were a few money managers who were dropping their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, John W. Rogers’s Ariel Investments said goodbye to the largest investment of the 450+ funds we track, totaling about $6.3 million in stock.. Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s fund, Polar Capital, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds last quarter.

How are insiders trading Pervasive Software Inc. (NASDAQ:PVSW)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Pervasive Software Inc. (NASDAQ:PVSW) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns exhibited by our studies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Pervasive Software Inc. (NASDAQ:PVSW) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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