FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. FEIC investors should pay attention to a decrease in hedge fund interest lately. There were 17 hedge funds in our database with FEIC positions at the end of the previous quarter.
To the average investor, there are many indicators shareholders can use to analyze Mr. Market. A pair of the most useful 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 fund managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a solid amount (see just how much).
Just as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are a number of incentives for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the key action regarding FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC).
How are hedge funds trading FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -41% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC), worth close to $98.5 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, which held a $70.4 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies with similar optimism include Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors and Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital.
Because FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC) has faced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that slashed their full holdings at the end of the first quarter. Intriguingly, Thomas Steyer’s Farallon Capital sold off the largest investment of the 450+ funds we monitor, totaling about $30.3 million in stock.. Jeffrey Vinik’s fund, Vinik Asset Management, also sold off its stock, about $8.4 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 7 funds at the end of the first quarter.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC)?
Insider buying is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC). These stocks are Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO), Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX), Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI), Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR), and Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD). This group of stocks are the members of the scientific & technical instruments industry and their market caps resemble FEIC’s market cap.
