Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX) investors should be aware of a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money of late.

If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, old financial vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading at present, we at Insider Monkey look at the crème de la crème of this group, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by watching their top stock picks, we have deciphered a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed 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 outclassed the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (explore the details and some picks here).

Equally as key, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the key action encompassing Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX).

Hedge fund activity in Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX)

At year’s end, a total of 20 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -20% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Patrick McCormack’s Tiger Consumer Management had the most valuable position in Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX), worth close to $98 million, comprising 4.6% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Viking Global, managed by Andreas Halvorsen, which held a $33 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors, Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey’s Healthcor Management LP and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Since Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX) has experienced declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that slashed their entire stakes at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management sold off the biggest stake of all the hedgies we key on, worth an estimated $21 million in stock.. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s fund, Adage Capital Management, also cut its stock, about $20 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 5 funds at the end of the year.

How have insiders been trading Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results exhibited by our research, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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