Is it smart to be bullish on ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ONNN)?
To the average investor, there are many indicators shareholders can use to analyze publicly traded companies. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a very impressive amount (see just how much).
Just as necessary, positive insider trading activity is a second way to look at the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of incentives for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if shareholders understand where to look (learn more here).
What’s more, let’s discuss the newest info for ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ONNN).
How have hedgies been trading ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ONNN)?
Heading into Q3, a total of 22 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -4% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.
According to our 13F database, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the largest position in ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ONNN). Citadel Investment Group has a $87.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Eric Bannasch of Cadian Capital, with a $86.5 million position; the fund has 2.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Ron Gutfleish’s Elm Ridge Capital and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
Since ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ONNN) has experienced bearish sentiment from the top-tier hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies that slashed their full holdings in Q1. Interestingly, Josh Resnick’s Jericho Capital Asset Management dumped the largest investment of the 450+ funds we track, comprising about $20.3 million in stock, and Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $13.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds in Q1.
What have insiders been doing with ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ONNN)?
Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ONNN) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ONNN). These stocks are Cavium Inc (NASDAQ:CAVM), Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MLNX), Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ:ATML), AU Optronics Corp. (ADR) (NYSE:AUO), and Freescale Semiconductor Ltd (NYSE:FSL). This group of stocks belong to the semiconductor – broad line industry and their market caps are closest to ONNN’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Cavium Inc (NASDAQ:CAVM) | 18 | 0 | 0 |
| Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MLNX) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ:ATML) | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| AU Optronics Corp. (ADR) (NYSE:AUO) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Freescale Semiconductor Ltd (NYSE:FSL) | 20 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns shown by the previously mentioned research, average investors must always track hedge fund and insider trading activity, and ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ONNN) is an important part of this process.
