Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Fusion-IO, Inc. (FIO) Anymore

Is Fusion-IO, Inc. (NYSE:FIO) an exceptional investment now? Prominent investors are getting less bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets were cut by 7 recently.

In the financial world, there are dozens of indicators market participants can use to track stocks. A duo of the best 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 top money managers can trounce the market by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of reasons for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a glance at the key action encompassing Fusion-IO, Inc. (NYSE:FIO).

How have hedgies been trading Fusion-IO, Inc. (NYSE:FIO)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -29% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Appaloosa Management LP, managed by David Tepper, holds the largest position in Fusion-IO, Inc. (NYSE:FIO). Appaloosa Management LP has a $28.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Rob Butts and Josh Clark of Southpoint Capital Advisors, with a $16.4 million position; the fund has 1.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Matthew Knauer and Mina Faltas’s Nokota Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

Since Fusion-IO, Inc. (NYSE:FIO) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there were a few hedge funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely in Q1. At the top of the heap, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors said goodbye to the largest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at about $66.4 million in stock., and D. E. Shaw of D E Shaw was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $5.9 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 7 funds in Q1.

Insider trading activity in Fusion-IO, Inc. (NYSE:FIO)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Fusion-IO, Inc. (NYSE:FIO) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Fusion-IO, Inc. (NYSE:FIO). These stocks are Datalink Corporation (NASDAQ:DTLK), Xyratex Ltd. (NASDAQ:XRTX), Quantum Corp (NYSE:QTM), Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX), and Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRCD). This group of stocks are the members of the data storage devices industry and their market caps are closest to FIO’s market cap.