Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. ACLS has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with ACLS positions at the end of the previous quarter.
According to most investors, hedge funds are perceived as slow, outdated financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds in operation today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the moguls of this club, around 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by tracking their top equity investments, we have come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 the details here).
Equally as integral, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of incentives for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
Now, let’s take a gander at the latest action regarding Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS).
What does the smart money think about Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS)?
In preparation for this quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 13% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.
Consequently, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Anthion Management, managed by David Moradi, established the most outsized position in Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS). Anthion Management had 1.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management also made a $0.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new ACLS position is Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
How have insiders been trading Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the results shown by our strategies, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS) is an important part of this process.
