Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA): Insiders Are Dumping, Should You? – Rexnord Corp (NYSE:RXN), ITT Corp (NYSE:ITT)

Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months.

At the moment, there are many indicators market participants can use to analyze their holdings. Two of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Just as integral, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of stimuli for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you understand where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at the latest action encompassing Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA).

What does the smart money think about Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA)?

At year’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA). Royce & Associates has a $146 million position in the stock, comprising 0.5% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Ricky Sandler of Eminence Capital, with a $72 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Charles de Vaulx’s International Value Advisers.

Because Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA) has witnessed declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedge funds that decided to sell off their entire stakes last quarter. At the top of the heap, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC cut the largest position of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at an estimated $32 million in stock.. David Costen Haley’s fund, HBK Investments, also cut its stock, about $0 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Insider trading activity in Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA)

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA). These stocks are Sauer-Danfoss Inc. (NYSE:SHS), Rexnord Corp (NYSE:RXN), ITT Corp (NYSE:ITT), Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU), and Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC). This group of stocks are in the diversified machinery industry and their market caps are similar to ZBRA’s market cap.

With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s research, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ZBRA) is an important part of this process.

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