Atmel Corporation (ATML): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Since Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ:ATML) has experienced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there were a few hedge funds that slashed their positions entirely in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, George Soros’ Soros Fund Management dropped the largest investment of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, worth close to $50.9 million in stock. Panayotis Takis Sparaggis’s fund, Alkeon Capital Management, also dumped its stock, about $50.5 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ:ATML) but similarly valued. These stocks are Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS), Qlik Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:QLIK), Memorial Resource Development Corp (NASDAQ:MRD), and Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to ATML’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 28.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $664 million. That figure was $266 million in ATML’s case. Qlik Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:QLIK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ:ATML) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard QLIK might be a better candidate to consider a long position.