Is VOXX International Corp (NASDAQ:VOXX) the right pick for your portfolio? Money managers are becoming less hopeful. The number of bullish hedge fund bets stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience
In the eyes of most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, old financial vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation today, we look at the upper echelon of this club, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing stock picks, we have discovered a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. There are many reasons for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the latest action surrounding VOXX International Corp (NASDAQ:VOXX).
Hedge fund activity in VOXX International Corp (NASDAQ:VOXX)
At year’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.
Of the funds we track, Irving Kahn’s Kahn Brothers had the biggest position in VOXX International Corp (NASDAQ:VOXX), worth close to $16 million, comprising 2.7% of its total 13F portfolio. On Kahn Brothers’s heels is Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which held a $7 million position; the fund has 0% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
Judging by the fact that VOXX International Corp (NASDAQ:VOXX) has witnessed declining sentiment from the smart money, we can see that there exists a select few hedge funds that elected to cut their full holdings in Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Louis Navellier’s Navellier & Associates cut the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we track, worth an estimated $1 million in stock.. Jeffrey Vinik’s fund, Vinik Asset Management, also dumped its stock, about $0 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Insider trading activity in VOXX International Corp (NASDAQ:VOXX)
Insider buying is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, VOXX International Corp (NASDAQ:VOXX) has experienced 4 unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to VOXX International Corp (NASDAQ:VOXX). These stocks are ADDvantage Technologies Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEY), Anixter International Inc. (NYSE:AXE), Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (US) (NASDAQ:ITRN), TESSCO Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TESS), and Richardson Electronics, Ltd. (NASDAQ:RELL). This group of stocks are in the electronics wholesale industry and their market caps resemble VOXX’s market cap.
