This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Exide Technologies (XIDE)

Exide Technologies (NASDAQ:XIDE) investors should be aware of an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late.

To most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, outdated investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds in operation at the moment, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the masters of this group, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the majority of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by tracking their highest performing stock picks, we have brought to light a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are lots of incentives for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a peek at the key action regarding Exide Technologies (NASDAQ:XIDE).

Hedge fund activity in Exide Technologies (NASDAQ:XIDE)

Heading into Q2, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 8% from the first quarter.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Tudor Investment Corp, managed by Paul Tudor Jones, assembled the most outsized position in Exide Technologies (NASDAQ:XIDE). Tudor Investment Corp had 0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Thomas Bailard’s Bailard Inc also made a $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new XIDE position is Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

What have insiders been doing with Exide Technologies (NASDAQ:XIDE)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time period, Exide Technologies (NASDAQ:XIDE) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Exide Technologies (NASDAQ:XIDE). These stocks are Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESIO), Skullcandy Inc (NASDAQ:SKUL), Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ:CPST), LSI Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYTS), and Coleman Cable, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCIX). This group of stocks belong to the industrial electrical equipment industry and their market caps are similar to XIDE’s market cap.