Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Exar Corporation (EXAR)

Exar Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAR) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. EXAR has seen an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with EXAR holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In today’s marketplace, there are many methods shareholders can use to track their holdings. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outpace the broader indices by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are lots of motivations for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action surrounding Exar Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAR).

What have hedge funds been doing with Exar Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAR)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 10% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

Of the funds we track, George Soros’s Soros Fund Management had the largest position in Exar Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAR), worth close to $66.9 million, accounting for 0.8% of its total 13F portfolio. On Soros Fund Management’s heels is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $23.6 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Seymour Sy Kaufman and Michael Stark’s Crosslink Capital and Peter A. Wright’s P.A.W. CAPITAL PARTNERS.

As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Polar Capital, managed by Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley, created the most valuable position in Exar Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAR). Polar Capital had 3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.

How have insiders been trading Exar Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAR)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time frame, Exar Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAR) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Exar Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAR). These stocks are Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR), Micrel, Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCRL), Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR), Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB), and Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (NASDAQ:AMCC). All of these stocks are in the semiconductor – integrated circuits industry and their market caps are closest to EXAR’s market cap.