Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love SunPower Corporation (SPWR)?

Is SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) ready to rally soon? Investors who are in the know are turning less bullish. The number of long hedge fund positions stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience

In the financial world, there are dozens of indicators market participants can use to analyze stocks. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can beat the broader indices by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are plenty of stimuli for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the key action surrounding SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR).

What does the smart money think about SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.

Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR). Royce & Associates has a $16.5 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Andrew Sandler of Sandler Capital Management, with a $15.5 million call position; the fund has 0.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish include John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies, Wojciech Uzdelewicz’s Espalier Global Management and Wojciech Uzdelewicz’s Espalier Global Management.

Judging by the fact that SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the smart money, we can see that there were a few fund managers who sold off their full holdings last quarter. Intriguingly, Philip Hempleman’s Ardsley Partners said goodbye to the largest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at close to $7.3 million in stock.. Ken Griffin’s fund, Citadel Investment Group, also sold off its stock, about $3.9 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time frame, SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR). These stocks are LSI Corp (NASDAQ:LSI), SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY), Cirrus Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRUS), First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR), and Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ:SLAB). This group of stocks are the members of the semiconductor – specialized industry and their market caps are closest to SPWR’s market cap.

With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) is no exception.

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