Hedge Funds Are Betting On STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (STM)

At the moment, there are tons of gauges shareholders can use to monitor the equity markets. A couple of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as key, bullish insider trading activity is another way to look at the world of equities. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s important to analyze the latest info surrounding STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:STM).

How have hedgies been trading STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:STM)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 22% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Youlia Miteva’s Proxima Capital Management had the largest position in STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:STM), worth close to $17.9 million, comprising 4.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is George Soros of Soros Fund Management, with a $15.9 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management, Peter Rathjens Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

As one would understandably expect, certain bigger names were breaking ground themselves. Proxima Capital Management, managed by Youlia Miteva, initiated the largest position in STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:STM). Proxima Capital Management had 17.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. George Soros’s Soros Fund Management also made a $15.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new STM investors: William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

How are insiders trading STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:STM)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time frame, STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:STM) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:STM). These stocks are Freescale Semiconductor Ltd (NYSE:FSL), AU Optronics Corp. (ADR) (NYSE:AUO), Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (NASDAQ:MXIM), Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO), and NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI). This group of stocks are in the semiconductor – broad line industry and their market caps resemble STM’s market cap.