Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB) investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money of late.
Equally as important, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the world of equities. There are a variety of incentives for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action encompassing Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB).
What have hedge funds been doing with Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB)?
In preparation for this year, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -8% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors had the largest position in Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB), worth close to $46.4 million, accounting for 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jeffrey Vinik of Vinik Asset Management, with a $10.4 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Judging by the fact that Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedge funds that decided to sell off their entire stakes at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group cut the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at an estimated $13.2 million in stock.. David Harding’s fund, Winton Capital Management, also dumped its stock, about $0.8 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds at the end of the year.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB)?
Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB). These stocks are Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO), Sensata Technologies Holding N.V. (NYSE:ST), Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN), and Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT). This group of stocks are in the scientific & technical instruments industry and their market caps are closest to TRMB’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| Sensata Technologies Holding N.V. (NYSE:ST) | 34 | 0 | 10 |
| Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN) | 12 | 0 | 8 |
| Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) | 13 | 0 | 2 |
With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s studies, everyday investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
