Hedge Funds Are Betting On Plexus Corp. (PLXS)

Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) was in 16 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. PLXS investors should be aware of an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with PLXS holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are plenty of gauges shareholders can use to watch their holdings. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. Obviously, there are a variety of stimuli for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if you understand where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a peek at the recent action surrounding Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS).

How are hedge funds trading Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 60% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS), worth close to $26.2 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management, with a $21.7 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Now, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, created the largest position in Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS). Millennium Management had 1.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management also initiated a $0.7 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new PLXS investors: Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management, and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management.

How have insiders been trading Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS)?

Insider buying is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 3 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 Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS). These stocks are Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE), Celestica Inc. (USA) (NYSE:CLS), Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN), TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI), and Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE). This group of stocks are the members of the printed circuit boards industry and their market caps are similar to PLXS’s market cap.