Is Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR) a good investment?
In today’s marketplace, there are tons of methods investors can use to watch publicly traded companies. A pair of the best 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 top fund managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Just as necessary, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to look at the world of equities. There are many motivations for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if investors understand where to look (learn more here).
What’s more, we’re going to analyze the recent info for Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR).
How are hedge funds trading Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -25% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR). Royce & Associates has a $16.4 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $12.1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that hold long positions include Peter S. Park’s Park West Asset Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.
As Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR) has faced bearish sentiment from the smart money’s best and brightest, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that decided to sell off their full holdings heading into Q2. Interestingly, Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp said goodbye to the biggest stake of all the hedgies we monitor, totaling close to $0.4 million in stock, and Matthew Tewksbury of Stevens Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.4 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds heading into Q2.
Insider trading activity in Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR)
Insider buying made by high-level executives is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators 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 the members of the semiconductor – integrated circuits industry and their market caps match VLTR’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Peregrine Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:PSMI) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Oplink Communications, Inc (NASDAQ:OPLK) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| ParkerVision, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRKR) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Audience Inc (NASDAQ:ADNC) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results explained by the previously mentioned tactics, regular investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VLTR) applies perfectly to this mantra.
