Vishay Intertechnology (VSH): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH) investors should pay attention to a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months.

At the moment, there are many indicators investors can use to analyze the equity markets. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can trounce the market by a solid amount (see just how much).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of incentives for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the key action encompassing Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH).

How are hedge funds trading Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH). Royce & Associates has a $103.6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, which held a $56.6 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Howard Marks’s Oaktree Capital Management, Panayotis Takis Sparaggis’s Alkeon Capital Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Since Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH) has witnessed falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there were a few funds who were dropping their positions entirely heading into Q2. Interestingly, David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management dropped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we track, worth about $7.5 million in stock.. Ron Gutfleish’s fund, Elm Ridge Capital, also said goodbye to its stock, about $4.9 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

What have insiders been doing with Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH). These stocks are Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ:ATML), Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MLNX), Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:CY), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD), and Cavium Inc (NASDAQ:CAVM). This group of stocks are in the semiconductor – broad line industry and their market caps are closest to VSH’s market cap.