Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANIK) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. ANIK shareholders have witnessed a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with ANIK positions at the end of the previous quarter.
In the financial world, there are many metrics market participants can use to watch publicly traded companies. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can outperform the broader indices by a superb margin (see just how much).
Just as important, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of incentives for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if you know what to do (learn more here).
With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a peek at the recent action regarding Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANIK).
What does the smart money think about Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANIK)?
Heading into 2013, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the most valuable position in Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANIK), worth close to $3.9 million, accounting for less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Robert B. Gillam of McKinley Capital Management, with a $1 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that are bullish include Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Kroch’s GRT Capital Partners, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
Due to the fact that Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANIK) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of money managers that elected to cut their entire stakes at the end of the year. At the top of the heap, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates dropped the biggest position of the 450+ funds we key on, worth an estimated $2.6 million in stock., and Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron of Algert Coldiron Investors was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Insider trading activity in Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANIK)
Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANIK) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANIK). These stocks are BioTime, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:BTX), Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU), Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NASDAQ:SVA), Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (NASDAQ:CORT), and Verastem Inc (NASDAQ:VSTM). This group of stocks are the members of the biotechnology industry and their market caps are similar to ANIK’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| BioTime, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:BTX) | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU) | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NASDAQ:SVA) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (NASDAQ:CORT) | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Verastem Inc (NASDAQ:VSTM) | 6 | 3 | 0 |
With the results shown by our research, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANIK) applies perfectly to this mantra.
