At the moment, there are plenty of metrics shareholders can use to track Mr. Market. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a very impressive margin (see just how much).
Just as necessary, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of reasons for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
What’s more, let’s study the recent info for Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE).
How are hedge funds trading Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -13% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.
According to our 13F database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE). Royce & Associates has a $98.4 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Lakewood Capital Management, managed by Anthony Bozza, which held a $11.3 million position; 0.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.
As Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the smart money’s best and brightest, logic holds that there were a few hedge funds who were dropping their full holdings at the end of the second quarter. Interestingly, Mike Vranos’s Ellington cut the largest investment of the 450+ funds we key on, comprising close to $0.5 million in stock. Matthew Tewksbury’s fund, Stevens Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $0.5 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds at the end of the second quarter.
How are insiders trading Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE)?
Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE). These stocks are Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE), TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI), Celestica Inc. (USA) (NYSE:CLS), Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN), and Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS). All of these stocks are in the printed circuit boards industry and their market caps are similar to BHE’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Celestica Inc. (USA) (NYSE:CLS) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results shown by our tactics, average investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE) applies perfectly to this mantra.
