ABIOMED, Inc. (ABMD): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Undecided, What Should You Do?

Is ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD) a good investment?

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of gauges investors can use to track the equity markets. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the stock market universe. There are plenty of incentives for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Thus, let’s study the recent info for ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD).

How have hedgies been trading ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 50% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

According to our 13F database, William Leland Edwards’s Palo Alto Investors had the most valuable position in ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD), worth close to $50 million, accounting for 5.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which held a $13.7 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds with similar optimism include Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Jeremy Green’s Redmile Group.

As aggregate interest spiked, particular hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Palo Alto Investors, managed by William Leland Edwards, assembled the biggest position in ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD). Palo Alto Investors had 50 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also initiated a $13.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ABMD positions are Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Jeremy Green’s Redmile Group.

How have insiders been trading ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD). These stocks are NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA), The Spectranetics Corporation (NASDAQ:SPNC), NxStage Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTM), Orthofix International NV (NASDAQ:OFIX), and Greatbatch Inc (NYSE:GB). All of these stocks are in the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps resemble ABMD’s market cap.