Hologic

When investors unloaded their shares in Hewlett-Packard Co. last year, the computer giant's rank-and-file did the opposite. They bought nearly four times as much stock as they did in the previous year despite a raft of bad news.It was a smart bet, and outside investors would have done even better than the insiders had they followed employees into the stock.HP's stock is trading at a 27 percent premium over the average $17 a share price paid by workers during fiscal 2012. HP shares are up 53 percent since the company disclosed the results of its ESPP activity in late December.Following a herd of thousands of HP workers does not seem like it would be a sound trading strategy. But when it comes to the buying patterns inside the discount employee stock purchase programs (ESPPs) offered by U.S. corporations to their employees, the wisdom of a crowd can be a barometer of future stock performance.Recent academic research by Arizona State University's Ilona Babenko and Rik Sen of The Hong Kong...

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