Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. PCRX shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund interest lately. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with PCRX positions at the end of the previous quarter.
According to most traders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, old investment vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we choose to focus on the masters of this club, about 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their best investments, we have figured out a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the S&P 500 index. 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 started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outperformed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Equally as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are many incentives for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, it’s important to take a peek at the recent action regarding Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX).
What have hedge funds been doing with Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX)?
At year’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.
According to our comprehensive database, Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors had the biggest position in Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX), worth close to $28 million, accounting for 0.9% of its total 13F portfolio. On OrbiMed Advisors’s heels is Jacob Gottlieb of Visium Asset Management, with a $28 million position; the fund has 1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ian P. Murray’s Lanexa Global Management.
Seeing as Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX) has witnessed declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers who sold off their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies dropped the biggest position of the 450+ funds we monitor, comprising close to $1 million in stock. 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).
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX)?
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX). These stocks are Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL), Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ICPT), Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEGR), Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:NBIX), and Impax Laboratories Inc (NASDAQ:IPXL). This group of stocks are the members of the drug manufacturers – major industry and their market caps are closest to PCRX’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ICPT) | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEGR) | 14 | 3 | 1 |
| Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:NBIX) | 12 | 0 | 1 |
| Impax Laboratories Inc (NASDAQ:IPXL) | 14 | 3 | 5 |
With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned strategies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX) is no exception.
