Is Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds? – Photronics, Inc. (PLAB), ParkerVision, Inc. (PRKR)

Is Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR) a healthy stock for your portfolio? Money managers are becoming hopeful. The number of bullish hedge fund positions inched up by 6 lately.

According to most market participants, hedge funds are seen as worthless, old financial tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open today, we look at the crème de la crème of this club, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group controls most of the smart money’s total capital, and by tracking their best picks, we have identified a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are a number of reasons for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if shareholders understand where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the recent action surrounding Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR).

How are hedge funds trading Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 100% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the biggest position in Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR), worth close to $8.8 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Gregory A. Weaver of Invicta Capital Management, with a $6.9 million position; 3.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Invicta Capital Management, managed by Gregory A. Weaver, established the biggest position in Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR). Invicta Capital Management had 6.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also initiated a $2.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

What have insiders been doing with Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR). These stocks are Peregrine Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:PSMI), Oplink Communications, Inc (NASDAQ:OPLK), Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB), ParkerVision, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRKR), and Audience Inc (NASDAQ:ADNC). This group of stocks are in the semiconductor – integrated circuits industry and their market caps resemble VLTR’s market cap.