IPG Photonics Corporation (IPGP): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Is IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP) a first-rate investment now? The best stock pickers are taking an optimistic view. The number of long hedge fund bets advanced by 2 lately.

To most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be worthless, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the elite of this club, about 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group controls most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by monitoring their top equity investments, we have uncovered a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 trumped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the world of equities. Obviously, there are plenty of motivations for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a gander at the key action surrounding IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP).

How have hedgies been trading IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 20% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP). Royce & Associates has a $90.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, which held a $13.3 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Drew Cupps’s Cupps Capital Management, and Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management.

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, assembled the most valuable position in IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP). OZ Management had 13.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also made a $5.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new IPGP positions are Van Schreiber’s Bennett Lawrence Management and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.

How have insiders been trading IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP). These stocks are Hittite Microwave Corp (NASDAQ:HITT), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL), Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ:MSCC), Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC), and Skyworks Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:SWKS). This group of stocks are in the semiconductor – integrated circuits industry and their market caps are closest to IPGP’s market cap.