Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Rofin-Sinar Technologies (RSTI)?

Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI) was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. RSTI investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with RSTI positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are a multitude of gauges shareholders can use to track their holdings. A couple of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can trounce the broader indices by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, positive insider trading activity is a second way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a peek at the key action surrounding Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI).

How are hedge funds trading Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the largest position in Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI), worth close to $60 million, comprising 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Third Avenue Management, managed by Martin Whitman, which held a $44.6 million position; the fund has 1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Seeing as Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI) has experienced declining sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who were dropping their entire stakes at the end of the year. At the top of the heap, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management cut the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, totaling about $0.8 million in stock. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI) has seen 4 unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI). These stocks are Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ:ALOG), Measurement Specialties, Inc. (NASDAQ:MEAS), MTS Systems Corporation (NASDAQ:MTSC), FARO Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:FARO), and Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI). All of these stocks are in the scientific & technical instruments industry and their market caps are closest to RSTI’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI) is an important part of this process.

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