Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Dorman Products Inc. (DORM)?

In the eyes of many of your peers, hedge funds are seen as bloated, outdated investment tools of a forgotten age. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds in operation currently, Insider Monkey focuses on the aristocrats of this club, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group has its hands on the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by paying attention to their highest quality investments, we’ve found a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped 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 trumped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as useful, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the world of equities. There are a number of motivations for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if you understand where to look (learn more here).

Thus, we’re going to analyze the latest info about Dorman Products Inc. (NASDAQ:DORM).

Hedge fund activity in Dorman Products Inc. (NASDAQ:DORM)

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 150% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Dorman Products Inc. (NASDAQ:DORM). Royce & Associates has a $88.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Horizon Asset Management, managed by Murray Stahl, which held a $3 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, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Now, certain bigger names were leading the bulls’ herd. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, created the most outsized position in Dorman Products Inc. (NASDAQ:DORM). Royce & Associates had 88.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management also made a $3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new DORM investors: D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

How have insiders been trading Dorman Products Inc. (NASDAQ:DORM)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Dorman Products Inc. (NASDAQ:DORM) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Dorman Products Inc. (NASDAQ:DORM). These stocks are Dana Holding Corporation (NYSE:DAN), Tenneco Inc (NYSE:TEN), American Axle & Manufact. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AXL), Westport Innovations Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:WPRT), and Monro Muffler Brake Inc (NASDAQ:MNRO). All of these stocks are in the auto parts industry and their market caps match DORM’s market cap.

Using the returns shown by our research, average investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Dorman Products Inc. (NASDAQ:DORM) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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