ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. VSAT has seen a decrease in hedge fund interest lately. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with VSAT positions at the end of the previous quarter.
If you’d ask most traders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, old investment tools of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at present, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the elite of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing picks, we have come up with a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are a number of stimuli for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
Now, we’re going to take a look at the latest action surrounding ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT).
What have hedge funds been doing with ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)?
In preparation for this year, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -11% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Baupost Group, managed by Seth Klarman, holds the most valuable position in ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT). Baupost Group has a $427.9 million position in the stock, comprising 13.8% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Bronson Point Partners, managed by Larry Foley and Paul Farrell, which held a $24.9 million position; 2.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners and Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management.
Because ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) has faced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there exists a select few hedge funds who sold off their full holdings in Q4. Intriguingly, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies sold off the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we track, comprising about $0.9 million in stock.. Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s fund, LMR Partners, also dropped its stock, about $0.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds in Q4.
What have insiders been doing with ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time frame, ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) has experienced 2 unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT). These stocks are Alcatel Lucent SA (ADR) (NYSE:ALU), Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN), Arris Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARRS), Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT), and Exelis Inc (NYSE:XLS). This group of stocks are in the communication equipment industry and their market caps match VSAT’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Alcatel Lucent SA (ADR) (NYSE:ALU) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN) | 15 | 0 | 12 |
| Arris Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARRS) | 16 | 0 | 5 |
| Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT) | 22 | 0 | 2 |
| Exelis Inc (NYSE:XLS) | 21 | 2 | 4 |
With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) is an important part of this process.
