This Metric Says You Are Smart to Sell Vicor Corp (VICR)

Vicor Corp (NASDAQ:VICR) investors should be aware of a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately.

In the financial world, there are dozens of indicators market participants can use to analyze their holdings. A pair of the most under-the-radar 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 investment managers can trounce the broader indices by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are plenty of motivations for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the recent action surrounding Vicor Corp (NASDAQ:VICR).

Hedge fund activity in Vicor Corp (NASDAQ:VICR)

At Q1’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -9% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners had the most valuable position in Vicor Corp (NASDAQ:VICR), worth close to $4.8 million, accounting for 0.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On Manatuck Hill Partners’s heels is Goodnow Investment Group, managed by Edward Goodnow, which held a $2.5 million position; the fund has 0.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Phil Frohlich’s Prescott Group Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Since Vicor Corp (NASDAQ:VICR) has witnessed a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few hedge funds that slashed their positions entirely heading into Q2. Intriguingly, Charles Davidson’s Wexford Capital dumped the largest investment of the 450+ funds we track, comprising close to $0.1 million in stock. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds heading into Q2.

Insider trading activity in Vicor Corp (NASDAQ:VICR)

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time frame, Vicor Corp (NASDAQ:VICR) has experienced zero 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 Vicor Corp (NASDAQ:VICR). These stocks are KEMET Corporation (NYSE:KEM), American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:AMSC), Maxwell Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:MXWL), Bel Fuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:BELFB), and Neonode, Inc (NASDAQ:NEON). All of these stocks are in the diversified electronics industry and their market caps match VICR’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s tactics, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Vicor Corp (NASDAQ:VICR) is an important part of this process.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds