Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Nanometrics Incorporated (NANO)?

Should Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO) investors track the following data?

To the average investor, there are plenty of gauges shareholders can use to watch publicly traded companies. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as useful, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to look at the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are many motivations for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s study the latest info for Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO).

How are hedge funds trading Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 33% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

According to our 13F database, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the most valuable position in Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO), worth close to $33 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Intrepid Capital Management Inc DE, managed by Steve Shapiro, which held a $1 million position; 0.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

As one would understandably expect, certain bigger names were leading the bulls’ herd. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, assembled the largest position in Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO). Royce & Associates had 33 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steve Shapiro’s Intrepid Capital Management Inc DE also initiated a $1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new NANO investors: John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

How have insiders been trading Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time period, Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO). These stocks are ChipMOS Technologies (Bermuda) Ltd (NASDAQ:IMOS), Enphase Energy Inc (NASDAQ:ENPH), Ambarella Inc (NASDAQ:AMBA), LTX-Credence Corp (NASDAQ:LTXC), and Rda Microelectronics Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RDA). All of these stocks are in the semiconductor equipment & materials industry and their market caps are similar to NANO’s market cap.

Using the results demonstrated by our research, regular investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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