KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) investors should be aware of an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently.
At the moment, there are tons of gauges market participants can use to track publicly traded companies. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top investment managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a very impressive margin (see just how much).
Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of incentives for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if investors know where to look (learn more here).
With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a peek at the key action surrounding KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC).
What does the smart money think about KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 30 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 20% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.
Of the funds we track, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the largest position in KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC). Renaissance Technologies has a $111 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $32.2 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. PAR Capital Management, managed by Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro, established the most outsized position in KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC). PAR Capital Management had 25.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also initiated a $21.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new KLAC investors: Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors, Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management, and Drew Cupps’s Cupps Capital Management.
How are insiders trading KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC). These stocks are Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT), Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX), Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE), and Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX). This group of stocks belong to the semiconductor equipment & materials industry and their market caps match KLAC’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) | 23 | 1 | 8 |
| Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS) | 20 | 0 | 11 |
| Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ADR) (NYSE:ASX) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE) | 22 | 1 | 4 |
| Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) | 29 | 0 | 3 |
With the results shown by the aforementioned strategies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) is an important part of this process.
