Is Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN) a bargain? Investors who are in the know are taking an optimistic view. The number of long hedge fund positions moved up by 4 in recent months.
To most market participants, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, we at Insider Monkey look at the upper echelon of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their best stock picks, we have spotted a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as key, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are many reasons for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if investors understand what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a glance at the latest action regarding Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN).
Hedge fund activity in Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN)
Heading into Q2, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 80% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Becker Drapkin Management, managed by Matthew Drapkin and Steven R. Becker, established the most valuable position in Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN). Becker Drapkin Management had 1.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard C. Patton’s Courage Capital also made a $0.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN)?
Insider buying is best served when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN). These stocks are Silicon Image, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIMG), Entropic Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENTR), GSI Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSIT), Inphi Corporation (NYSE:IPHI), and FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM). All of these stocks are in the semiconductor – broad line industry and their market caps are similar to KOPN’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Silicon Image, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIMG) | 15 | 1 | 2 |
| Entropic Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENTR) | 11 | 6 | 0 |
| GSI Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSIT) | 7 | 0 | 1 |
| Inphi Corporation (NYSE:IPHI) | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM) | 18 | 0 | 3 |
With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN) is an important part of this process.
