Synaptics, Incorporated (SYNA): Keep An Eye On This Crucial Data

Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) investors should be aware of a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently.

To the average investor, there are dozens of indicators market participants can use to monitor publicly traded companies. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are plenty of stimuli for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a gander at the latest action encompassing Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA).

How have hedgies been trading Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA)?

At year’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -31% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the most valuable position in Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA). Renaissance Technologies has a $18.1 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro of PAR Capital Management, with a $8.9 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Because Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) has witnessed falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that elected to cut their full holdings at the end of the year. Interestingly, John Hurley’s Cavalry Asset Management dumped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, worth an estimated $10.8 million in stock., and Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich of Scopia Capital was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $8.3 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds at the end of the year.

Insider trading activity in Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA)

Insider buying is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA). These stocks are Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS), Nice Systems Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:NICE), Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (NASDAQ:EFII), Logitech International SA (USA) (NASDAQ:LOGI), and Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL). This group of stocks are in the computer peripherals industry and their market caps are closest to SYNA’s market cap.