Hedge Funds Are Dumping Photronics, Inc. (PLAB)

Is Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) going to take off soon? Money managers are in a bearish mood. The number of long hedge fund positions retreated by 1 recently.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are plenty of metrics investors can use to monitor publicly traded companies. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top investment managers can outclass the market by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of motivations for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a peek at the key action regarding Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB).

Hedge fund activity in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -7% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB). Royce & Associates has a $3.6 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $3.1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

Because Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) has faced bearish sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there was a specific group of hedge funds who were dropping their entire stakes in Q1. Interestingly, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management dumped the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, comprising an estimated $1.2 million in stock., and Neil Chriss of Hutchin Hill Capital was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.3 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds in Q1.

Insider trading activity in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB). These stocks are ParkerVision, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRKR), Audience Inc (NASDAQ:ADNC), Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (NASDAQ:AMCC), Exar Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAR), and Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR). All of these stocks are in the semiconductor – integrated circuits industry and their market caps match PLAB’s market cap.