Is Avnet, Inc. (AVT) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Is Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) an excellent investment right now? Prominent investors are becoming less hopeful. The number of bullish hedge fund bets retreated by 2 in recent months.

In the financial world, there are dozens of indicators shareholders can use to monitor publicly traded companies. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outperform the market by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. There are many motivations for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a look at the latest action regarding Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT).

What does the smart money think about Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -10% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC had the most valuable position in Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), worth close to $181.6 million, accounting for 2% of its total 13F portfolio. On First Pacific Advisors LLC’s heels is Thomas E. Claugus of GMT Capital, with a $96.4 million position; 2.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds with similar optimism include Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital.

Judging by the fact that Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of hedge funds that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that John Osterweis’s Osterweis Capital Management said goodbye to the largest position of the 450+ funds we key on, worth an estimated $17.6 million in stock.. Louis Bacon’s fund, Moore Global Investments, also dropped its stock, about $0.8 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds heading into Q2.

How have insiders been trading Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT). These stocks are VOXX International Corp (NASDAQ:VOXX), Anixter International Inc. (NYSE:AXE), Watsco Inc (NYSE:WSO), and Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:ARW). All of these stocks are in the electronics wholesale industry and their market caps are closest to AVT’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s tactics, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) is an important part of this process.

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