Should You Buy Micrel, Incorporated (MCRL)?

Micrel, Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCRL) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. MCRL has seen an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with MCRL holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of methods investors can use to track publicly traded companies. Some of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can outpace the market by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are a variety of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action surrounding Micrel, Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCRL).

How have hedgies been trading Micrel, Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCRL)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 20% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Micrel, Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCRL). Royce & Associates has a $29.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $10.5 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, established the most valuable position in Micrel, Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCRL). Millennium Management had 1.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.

How are insiders trading Micrel, Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCRL)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time period, Micrel, Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCRL) has experienced 2 unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Micrel, Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCRL). These stocks are Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (NASDAQ:AMCC), OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI), EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:EZCH), Aeroflex Holding Corp. (NYSE:ARX), and Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR). This group of stocks are the members of the semiconductor – integrated circuits industry and their market caps are similar to MCRL’s market cap.

With the returns shown by our studies, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Micrel, Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCRL) is an important part of this process.

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