Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love PDL BioPharma Inc. (PDLI)?

Is PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI) a bargain? Investors who are in the know are taking a pessimistic view. The number of long hedge fund bets fell by 1 lately.

At the moment, there are a multitude of indicators market participants can use to track their holdings. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as important, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are a variety of motivations for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the key action encompassing PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI).

How have hedgies been trading PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -7% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the largest position in PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI). Renaissance Technologies has a $89.6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, which held a $26.4 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Because PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI) has experienced a declination in interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedgies who were dropping their full holdings heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that Mike Vranos’s Ellington dumped the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we watch, worth close to $0.7 million in stock.. Glenn Russell Dubin’s fund, Highbridge Capital Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds heading into Q2.

How have insiders been trading PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI). These stocks are Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LXRX), Santarus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNTS), VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS), Puma Biotechnology Inc (NYSE:PBYI), and MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD). This group of stocks are the members of the biotechnology industry and their market caps are closest to PDLI’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by our research, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI) is an important part of this process.

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