Hedge Funds Are Dumping Nanometrics Incorporated (NANO)

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Is Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO) going to take off soon? The best stock pickers are getting less bullish. The number of long hedge fund positions dropped by 1 lately.

According to most traders, hedge funds are perceived as slow, old investment tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we choose to focus on the leaders of this club, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by keeping an eye on their best investments, we have unsheathed a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Just as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. There are plenty of incentives for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at the key action encompassing Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO).

Hedge fund activity in Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO)

At Q1’s end, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -14% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO)When looking at the hedgies we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO). Royce & Associates has a $24 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Steve Shapiro of Intrepid Capital Management Inc DE, with a $1.3 million position; 0.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Because Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO) has witnessed a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few hedge funds that decided to sell off their full holdings at the end of the first quarter. Interestingly, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management dropped the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, totaling about $1.4 million in stock. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds at the end of the first quarter.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO). These stocks are ChipMOS Technologies (Bermuda) Ltd (NASDAQ:IMOS), Enphase Energy Inc (NASDAQ:ENPH), Ambarella Inc (NASDAQ:AMBA), LTX-Credence Corp (NASDAQ:LTXC), and Rda Microelectronics Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RDA). This group of stocks are in the semiconductor equipment & materials industry and their market caps resemble NANO’s market cap.

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