Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Anaren, Inc. (ANEN)

Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANEN) was in 5 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. ANEN shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with ANEN holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated investment tools of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at the moment, we choose to focus on the aristocrats of this club, close to 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the smart money’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their highest performing equity investments, we have discovered a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see the details here).

Equally as integral, bullish insider trading activity is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a peek at the latest action surrounding Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANEN).

What does the smart money think about Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANEN)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 5 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 an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANEN), worth close to $18.7 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $4.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Because Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANEN) has faced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there was a specific group of funds that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. At the top of the heap, Ken Grossman and Glen Schneider’s SG Capital Management sold off the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we watch, valued at an estimated $3.1 million in stock., and Mark Broach of Manatuck Hill Partners was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $1.5 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds last quarter.

Insider trading activity in Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANEN)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANEN) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANEN). These stocks are UTStarcom Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:UTSI), Telular Corporation (NASDAQ:WRLS), USA Mobility Inc (NASDAQ:USMO), Maxcom Telecomunic S.A.B. de C.V. (ADR) (NYSE:MXT), and NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS). All of these stocks are in the wireless communications industry and their market caps are similar to ANEN’s market cap.