Here is What Hedge Funds Think About National Instruments Corp (NATI)

Is National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI) a good investment?

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of metrics investors can use to track stocks. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, positive insider trading activity is another way to look at the investments you’re interested in. There are plenty of reasons for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Thus, it’s important to study the newest info for National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI).

Hedge fund activity in National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI)

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

According to our 13F database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI). Royce & Associates has a $173.6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.5% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $17 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company and Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management.

Because National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI) has witnessed a fall in interest from the top-tier hedge fund industry, logic holds that there was a specific group of hedge funds that decided to sell off their entire stakes at the end of the second quarter. At the top of the heap, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management said goodbye to the largest position of all the hedgies we track, totaling close to $0.6 million in stock. Mike Vranos’s fund, Ellington, also cut its stock, about $0.3 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

What do corporate executives and insiders think about National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI). These stocks are ACI Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ:ACIW), Mentor Graphics Corp (NASDAQ:MENT), ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS), PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PMTC), and Concur Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:CNQR). This group of stocks are in the technical & system software industry and their market caps are similar to NATI’s market cap.

Using the returns shown by the previously mentioned studies, regular investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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