Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Intermec Inc. (IN)

Intermec Inc. (NYSE:IN) investors should be aware of a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months.

If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated investment vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation today, we choose to focus on the top tier of this group, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by paying attention to their highest performing equity investments, we have come up with a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a 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 outclassed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Just as important, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of incentives for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a look at the recent action regarding Intermec Inc. (NYSE:IN).

How are hedge funds trading Intermec Inc. (NYSE:IN)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -21% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly.

Of the funds we track, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the largest position in Intermec Inc. (NYSE:IN), worth close to $63 million, comprising 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, which held a $37.6 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include Robert Emil Zoellner’s Alpine Associates, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Due to the fact that Intermec Inc. (NYSE:IN) has witnessed a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who were dropping their full holdings heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that Paul Glazer’s Glazer Capital dumped the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we watch, totaling close to $5 million in stock., and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.7 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds heading into Q2.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Intermec Inc. (NYSE:IN)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Intermec Inc. (NYSE:IN) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Intermec Inc. (NYSE:IN). These stocks are Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL), Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA), Logitech International SA (USA) (NASDAQ:LOGI), Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (NASDAQ:EFII), and Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ:IMMR). All of these stocks are in the computer peripherals industry and their market caps match IN’s market cap.