Should You Avoid OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (OVTI)?

Is OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI) a splendid investment now? The smart money is in a pessimistic mood. The number of bullish hedge fund positions decreased by 1 recently.

OmniVision Technologies, Inc.In the financial world, there are tons of methods investors can use to monitor the equity markets. Two of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can outpace the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the stock market universe. There are many incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a peek at the key action encompassing OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI).

Hedge fund activity in OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI)

Heading into Q2, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -5% 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 increasing their holdings meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the most valuable position in OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI). Fisher Asset Management has a $41.1 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $35.6 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies, Panayotis Takis Sparaggis’s Alkeon Capital Management and Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management.

Seeing as OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI) has faced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few fund managers that slashed their positions entirely heading into Q2. Intriguingly, Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital cut the biggest position of all the hedgies we track, totaling an estimated $5.9 million in stock., and James Dinan of York Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $5.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds heading into Q2.

How have insiders been trading OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI). These stocks are InvenSense Inc (NYSE:INVN), Aeroflex Holding Corp. (NYSE:ARX), TriQuint Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TQNT), Cabot Microelectronics Corporation (NASDAQ:CCMP), and EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:EZCH). This group of stocks are the members of the semiconductor – integrated circuits industry and their market caps match OVTI’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
InvenSense Inc (NYSE:INVN) 18 0 6
Aeroflex Holding Corp. (NYSE:ARX) 10 2 0
TriQuint Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TQNT) 8 2 0
Cabot Microelectronics Corporation (NASDAQ:CCMP) 11 0 13
EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:EZCH) 5 0 0

With the results exhibited by our tactics, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI) is an important part of this process.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds