Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Semtech Corporation (SMTC) Anymore

Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately.

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of methods investors can use to analyze stocks. A pair of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outpace the broader indices by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the marketplace. There are a variety of incentives for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action surrounding Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC).

What does the smart money think about Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -8% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

Of the funds we track, Mariko Gordon’s Daruma Asset Management had the largest position in Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC), worth close to $49.6 million, comprising 2.5% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, which held a $7.4 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital and Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies.

Due to the fact that Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC) has experienced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few hedge funds that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into Q2. Intriguingly, Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies we key on, valued at close to $2 million in stock., and Neil Chriss of Hutchin Hill Capital was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.4 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds heading into Q2.

How have insiders been trading Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 16 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC). These stocks are IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP), Fairchild Semiconductor Intl Inc (NYSE:FCS), Semiconductor Manufacturing Int’l (ADR) (NYSE:SMI), Hittite Microwave Corp (NASDAQ:HITT), and Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ:MSCC). This group of stocks are the members of the semiconductor – integrated circuits industry and their market caps are closest to SMTC’s market cap.