Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love MaxLinear, Inc. (MXL)?

MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE:MXL) has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are plenty of metrics market participants can use to monitor Mr. Market. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can outpace the broader indices by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are many stimuli for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the key action surrounding MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE:MXL).

Hedge fund activity in MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE:MXL)

In preparation for this year, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -44% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Brett Hendrickson’s Nokomis Capital had the largest position in MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE:MXL), worth close to $8.5 million, comprising 2.9% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and J. Carlo Cannell’s Cannell Capital.

Due to the fact that MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE:MXL) has experienced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedge funds who sold off their entire stakes in Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital sold off the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, comprising close to $1.7 million in stock.. Israel Englander’s fund, Millennium Management, also dropped its stock, about $0.2 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds in Q4.

How are insiders trading MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE:MXL)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE:MXL) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE:MXL). These stocks are Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ), Sigma Designs Inc (NASDAQ:SIGM), Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Ltd (NASDAQ:AOSL), Actions Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (ADR) (NASDAQ:ACTS), and Ultra Clean Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UCTT). This group of stocks belong to the semiconductor – specialized industry and their market caps resemble MXL’s market cap.