This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy FEI Company (FEIC)

Is FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC) a good investment?

At the moment, there are a multitude of methods shareholders can use to watch stocks. Some of the most innovative 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 elite investment managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Just as crucial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to look at the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of incentives for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” understand what to do (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to discuss the recent info surrounding FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC).

What have hedge funds been doing with FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 20% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

According to our 13F database, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the biggest position in FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC), worth close to $80.8 million, comprising 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which held a $69.8 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital and Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management.

As aggregate interest spiked, certain bigger names have jumped into FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC) headfirst. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, established the most outsized position in FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC). Fisher Asset Management had 80.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates also made a $69.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new FEIC positions are Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital, and Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, 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 FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC). These stocks are Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO), Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX), Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI), Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR), and Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD). This group of stocks are the members of the scientific & technical instruments industry and their market caps are closest to FEIC’s market cap.