Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Ceragon Networks Ltd. (CRNT)?

Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRNT) has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment lately.

In the eyes of most investors, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, we choose to focus on the elite of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees most of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by paying attention to their top equity investments, we have spotted a few investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped 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 (see the details here).

Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the world of equities. There are plenty of reasons for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a glance at the latest action surrounding Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRNT).

How have hedgies been trading Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRNT)?

At year’s end, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Gregory A. Weaver’s Invicta Capital Management had the biggest position in Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRNT), worth close to $11.3 million, comprising 5.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $0.4 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Because Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRNT) has faced a declination in interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of money managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes in Q4. At the top of the heap, Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies dumped the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we key on, comprising an estimated $2.6 million in stock. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How have insiders been trading Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRNT)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time period, Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRNT) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRNT). These stocks are Parametric Sound Corp (NASDAQ:PAMT), TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSYS), Symmetricom, Inc. (NASDAQ:SYMM), Ikanos Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:IKAN), and AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ:AUDC). All of these stocks are in the communication equipment industry and their market caps are closest to CRNT’s market cap.