Spreadtrum Communications, Inc (ADR) (SPRD): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do? – Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (CY), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)

Spreadtrum Communications, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:SPRD) has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money lately.

In the financial world, there are a multitude of indicators investors can use to track stocks. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outclass the broader indices by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the marketplace. There are many motivations for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, let’s take a peek at the latest action encompassing Spreadtrum Communications, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:SPRD).

How have hedgies been trading Spreadtrum Communications, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:SPRD)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 25% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Soros Fund Management, managed by George Soros, holds the biggest position in Spreadtrum Communications, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:SPRD). Soros Fund Management has a $29 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Mark Kingdon of Kingdon Capital, with a $8 million position; 0.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedgies that are bullish include Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management, SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors and Andrew Wallach’s Cumberland Associates.

Consequently, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Kingdon Capital, managed by Mark Kingdon, established the biggest position in Spreadtrum Communications, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:SPRD). Kingdon Capital had 8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management also made a $2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SPRD investors: Andrew Wallach’s Cumberland Associates, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Insider trading activity in Spreadtrum Communications, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:SPRD)

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, Spreadtrum Communications, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:SPRD) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Spreadtrum Communications, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:SPRD). These stocks are Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD), Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:CY), M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings (NASDAQ:MTSI), Intersil Corp (NASDAQ:ISIL), and Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDTI). All of these stocks are in the semiconductor – broad line industry and their market caps are closest to SPRD’s market cap.

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With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s strategies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Spreadtrum Communications, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:SPRD) is an important part of this process.

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