Hedge Funds Are Selling Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (ASX)

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX) has experienced a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently.

At the moment, there are a multitude of metrics market participants can use to track the equity markets. Some of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are lots of motivations for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the key action encompassing Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX).

What have hedge funds been doing with Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX)?

At year’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

Of the funds we track, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the most valuable position in Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX). Fisher Asset Management has a $21.4 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, which held a $1.3 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP.

Because Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX) has faced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of funds that slashed their full holdings in Q4. Intriguingly, Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management dumped the biggest position of the 450+ funds we watch, comprising an estimated $3.4 million in stock., and Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How have insiders been trading Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time frame, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX). These stocks are KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC), United Microelectronics Corp (ADR) (NYSE:UMC), Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS), Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX), and Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE). This group of stocks belong to the semiconductor equipment & materials industry and their market caps match ASX’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s studies, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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