In the eyes of most traders, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, old financial vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation today, we choose to focus on the masters of this group, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees most of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by watching their top picks, we have unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to 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).
Equally as integral, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the marketplace. Obviously, there are plenty of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the latest action surrounding Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR).
What does the smart money think about Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 23% from the first quarter.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Park West Asset Management, managed by Peter S. Park, assembled the most outsized position in Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR). Park West Asset Management had 10 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates also initiated a $6.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new VLTR investors: Mike Vranos’s Ellington, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
How have insiders been trading Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR). These stocks are Peregrine Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:PSMI), Oplink Communications, Inc (NASDAQ:OPLK), Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB), ParkerVision, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRKR), and Audience Inc (NASDAQ:ADNC). This group of stocks are in the semiconductor – integrated circuits industry and their market caps are similar to VLTR’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Peregrine Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:PSMI) | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Oplink Communications, Inc (NASDAQ:OPLK) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) | 13 | 0 | 6 |
| ParkerVision, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRKR) | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| Audience Inc (NASDAQ:ADNC) | 8 | 1 | 8 |
With the returns demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR) applies perfectly to this mantra.
