Pericom Semiconductor (NASDAQ:PSEM) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. PSEM shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with PSEM positions at the end of the previous quarter.
At the moment, there are tons of metrics shareholders can use to watch their holdings. Some of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outperform the market by a very impressive margin (see just how much).
Just as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of stimuli for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors know what to do (learn more here).
Now, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action encompassing Pericom Semiconductor (NASDAQ:PSEM).
How are hedge funds trading Pericom Semiconductor (NASDAQ:PSEM)?
At year’s end, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Pericom Semiconductor (NASDAQ:PSEM). Royce & Associates has a $13.8 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Richard Chilton of Chilton Investment Company, with a $4.9 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Algert Coldiron Investors, managed by Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron, assembled the most valuable position in Pericom Semiconductor (NASDAQ:PSEM). Algert Coldiron Investors had 0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
Insider trading activity in Pericom Semiconductor (NASDAQ:PSEM)
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Pericom Semiconductor (NASDAQ:PSEM) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero 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 Pericom Semiconductor (NASDAQ:PSEM). These stocks are MoSys Inc. (NASDAQ:MOSY), DSP Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DSPG), EMCORE Corporation (NASDAQ:EMKR), Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (USA) (NASDAQ:TSEM), and ANADIGICS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANAD). This group of stocks are in the semiconductor – integrated circuits industry and their market caps are closest to PSEM’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| MoSys Inc. (NASDAQ:MOSY) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| DSP Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DSPG) | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| EMCORE Corporation (NASDAQ:EMKR) | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (USA) (NASDAQ:TSEM) | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| ANADIGICS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANAD) | 6 | 0 | 1 |
With the returns shown by our tactics, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Pericom Semiconductor (NASDAQ:PSEM) applies perfectly to this mantra.
