ON Semiconductor Corp (ON): Hedge Fund Ownership Tanks by 36%; Time to Get Out?

Since ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few money managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Josh Resnick’s Jericho Capital Asset Management dumped the largest investment of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, comprising about $30.7 million in stock. Glenn Russell Dubin’s fund, Highbridge Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $10.9 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 12 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON). We will take a look at Equity Commonwealth (NYSE:EQC), Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (NYSE:CBI), Tableau Software Inc (NYSE:DATA), and Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE:SNV). This group of stocks’ market values resemble ON’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $517 million. That figure was $494 million in ON’s case. Tableau Software Inc (NYSE:DATA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE:SNV) is the least popular one with only 21 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON) is only as popular as SNV. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None