Sanmina Corp (SANM): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Sanmina Corp (NASDAQ:SANM) investors should be aware of a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently.

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of indicators investors can use to track Mr. Market. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Just as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of reasons for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the latest action encompassing Sanmina Corp (NASDAQ:SANM).

How have hedgies been trading Sanmina Corp (NASDAQ:SANM)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the biggest position in Sanmina Corp (NASDAQ:SANM). Royce & Associates has a $19.1 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is David Dreman of Dreman Value Management, with a $13.8 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Ron Gutfleish’s Elm Ridge Capital, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Because Sanmina Corp (NASDAQ:SANM) has witnessed falling interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers who sold off their entire stakes at the end of the first quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Israel Englander’s Millennium Management sold off the biggest position of all the hedgies we monitor, valued at close to $2.9 million in stock.. Andy Redleaf’s fund, Whitebox Advisors, also said goodbye to its stock, about $1.1 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How have insiders been trading Sanmina Corp (NASDAQ:SANM)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time period, Sanmina Corp (NASDAQ:SANM) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Sanmina Corp (NASDAQ:SANM). These stocks are Methode Electronics Inc. (NYSE:MEI), Power One Inc (NASDAQ:PWER), Nam Tai Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:NTE), Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEIS), and Encore Wire Corporation (NASDAQ:WIRE). All of these stocks are in the diversified electronics industry and their market caps resemble SANM’s market cap.