Entegris Inc (ENTG): Insiders Are Buying, Should You? – ASM International NV (ADR) (ASMI), Tessera Technologies, Inc. (TSRA)

Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG) has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently.

According to most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the bigwigs of this group, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group oversees most of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing stock picks, we have deciphered a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the financial markets. There are lots of stimuli for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if you understand what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the recent action regarding Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG).

What have hedge funds been doing with Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -8% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Thomas E. Claugus’s GMT Capital had the largest position in Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG), worth close to $130.1 million, comprising 3.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $36 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Seeing as Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG) has witnessed bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedgies that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, Ken Brodkowitz and Mike Vermut’s Newland Capital dumped the largest investment of the 450+ funds we key on, totaling an estimated $0.7 million in stock. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds last quarter.

How are insiders trading Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time frame, Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 13 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG). These stocks are Kulicke and Soffa Industries Inc. (NASDAQ:KLIC), ASM International NV (ADR) (NASDAQ:ASMI), Tessera Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSRA), Ultratech, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTEK), and Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO). All of these stocks are in the semiconductor equipment & materials industry and their market caps are similar to ENTG’s market cap.

With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s strategies, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG) is no exception.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds