To the average investor, there are dozens of gauges shareholders can use to analyze their holdings. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outclass the market by a very impressive margin (see just how much).
Equally as crucial, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to look at the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of reasons for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if investors know where to look (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s study the recent info for SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK).
How are hedge funds trading SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 53 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -2% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management had the most valuable position in SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), worth close to $394.2 million, comprising 4.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On Discovery Capital Management’s heels is Kensico Capital, managed by Michael Lowenstein, which held a $337.1 million position; the fund has 8.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish include Sandy Nairn’s Edinburgh Partners, Panayotis Sparaggis’s Alkeon Capital Management and Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors.
Judging by the fact that SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the top-tier hedge fund industry, logic holds that there were a few funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely heading into Q2. Interestingly, John Lykouretzos’s Hoplite Capital Management dumped the largest stake of the 450+ funds we watch, valued at an estimated $73.4 million in stock. Daniel Benton’s fund, Andor Capital Management, also dumped its stock, about $55 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds heading into Q2.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK)?
Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK). These stocks are Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRCD), EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC), NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP), and Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX). All of these stocks are in the data storage devices industry and their market caps are similar to SNDK’s market cap.
