Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) investors should be aware of a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months.

According to most shareholders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, old investment tools of years past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at the moment, we choose to focus on the moguls of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by paying attention to their highest performing equity investments, we have come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced 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 started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of stimuli for an insider to drop 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 piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a gander at the latest action encompassing Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL).

What does the smart money think about Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 31 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -11% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

Of the funds we track, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital had the largest position in Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL), worth close to $376 million, comprising 5.9% of its total 13F portfolio. On Greenlight Capital’s heels is Bill Miller of Legg Mason Capital Management, with a $74 million position; the fund has 1.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

Seeing as Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) has faced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies that elected to cut their entire stakes heading into 2013. Interestingly, David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP dropped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, valued at about $35 million in stock., and Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $34 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 4 funds heading into 2013.

What have insiders been doing with Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s research, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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