Is Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL) the right pick for your portfolio? Prominent investors are becoming less confident. The number of long hedge fund positions were cut by 1 lately.
According to most investors, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, old investment tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the moguls of this group, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by tracking their best stock picks, we have brought to light a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the marketplace. There are many reasons for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action regarding Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL).
How are hedge funds trading Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -7% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management had the most valuable position in Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL), worth close to $197.3 million, comprising 2.6% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Douglas Dillard Jr. and Raj D. Venkatesan of Standard Pacific Capital, with a $27.4 million position; 5.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Noam Gottesman’s GLG Partners, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Christopher Lord’s Criterion Capital.
Due to the fact that Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there were a few fund managers that slashed their entire stakes in Q1. At the top of the heap, Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital sold off the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at about $7.7 million in stock., and Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $1.7 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds in Q1.
How have insiders been trading Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL)?
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL). These stocks are Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS), Nice Systems Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:NICE), Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (NASDAQ:EFII), Logitech International SA (USA) (NASDAQ:LOGI), and Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA). This group of stocks belong to the computer peripherals industry and their market caps are closest to PANL’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Nice Systems Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:NICE) | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (NASDAQ:EFII) | 14 | 0 | 3 |
| Logitech International SA (USA) (NASDAQ:LOGI) | 10 | 1 | 1 |
| Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) | 11 | 0 | 9 |
With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL) is an important part of this process.
