Here’s What Hedge Funds Think About Synaptics Incorporated (SYNA)

After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 750 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of December 31. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA).

Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) investors should be aware of a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. Our calculations also showed that SYNA isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s flagship best performing hedge funds strategy returned 20.7% year to date (through March 12th) and outperformed the market even though it draws its stock picks among small-cap stocks. This strategy also outperformed the market by 32 percentage points since its inception (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Let’s view the recent hedge fund action regarding Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA).

How have hedgies been trading Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA)?

Heading into the first quarter of 2019, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -12% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in SYNA over the last 14 quarters. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Fisher Asset Management held the most valuable stake in Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA), which was worth $47.8 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Royce & Associates which amassed $17.4 million worth of shares. Moreover, D E Shaw, Citadel Investment Group, and Carlson Capital were also bullish on Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.

Since Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedge funds who were dropping their full holdings in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Eric Singer’s VIEX Capital Advisors dumped the largest investment of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $10.1 million in stock. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s fund, Adage Capital Management, also dropped its stock, about $8 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) but similarly valued. These stocks are GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME), Weis Markets, Inc. (NYSE:WMK), Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU), and Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to SYNA’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $126 million. That figure was $112 million in SYNA’s case. GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. Unfortunately SYNA wasn’t nearly as popular as these 15 stock (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); SYNA investors were disappointed as the stock returned 1.6% and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market this year.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.