Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Jabil Circuit, Inc. (JBL)

Is Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL) a buy?

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of indicators market participants can use to watch stocks. A pair 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 top money managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, positive insider trading activity is a second way to look at the investments you’re interested in. There are lots of incentives for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Thus, let’s analyze the recent info about Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL).

Hedge fund activity in Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL)

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 24 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 9% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management had the most valuable position in Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL), worth close to $27.9 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On AQR Capital Management’s heels is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $16.5 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and John Thiessen’s Vertex One Asset Management.

Now, particular hedge funds have jumped into Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL) headfirst. AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, established the largest position in Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL). AQR Capital Management had 27.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $16.5 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new JBL investors: Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and John Thiessen’s Vertex One Asset Management.

What have insiders been doing with Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL). These stocks are Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS), Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE), Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN), Celestica Inc. (USA) (NYSE:CLS), and Flextronics International Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX). All of these stocks are in the printed circuit boards industry and their market caps resemble JBL’s market cap.

Using the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s research, regular investors must always track hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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