Is Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) a buy?
In the financial world, there are dozens of methods market participants can use to monitor stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can beat the market by a very impressive amount (see just how much).
Just as useful, positive insider trading activity is another way to look at the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are lots of stimuli for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).
Thus, it’s important to analyze the recent info for Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS).
How are hedge funds trading Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS)?
Heading into Q3, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -50% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.
According to our 13F database, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS), worth close to $32 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management, with a $27.3 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.
As Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) has faced a fall in interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedgies that elected to cut their positions entirely last quarter. Interestingly, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management dumped the biggest position of all the hedgies we track, totaling about $1.8 million in stock, and Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $1.2 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 8 funds last quarter.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS)?
Insider buying is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS). These stocks are Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE), Celestica Inc. (USA) (NYSE:CLS), Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN), TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI), and Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE). This group of stocks are the members of the printed circuit boards industry and their market caps are similar to PLXS’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Celestica Inc. (USA) (NYSE:CLS) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE) | 13 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results explained by Insider Monkey’s studies, regular investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) is an important part of this process.
