Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI)?

PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI) investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

According to most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, outdated investment tools of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the leaders of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls most of the smart money’s total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing picks, we have uncovered a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see the details here).

Just as integral, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of motivations for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a peek at the key action encompassing PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI).

What does the smart money think about PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI)?

In preparation for this year, a total of 27 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -7% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group had the most valuable position in PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI), worth close to $166 million billion, accounting for 2.6% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $152 million position; 0.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey’s Healthcor Management LP, Ricky Sandler’s Eminence Capital and Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors.

Because PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI) has experienced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there exists a select few funds that slashed their full holdings in Q4. Intriguingly, Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp said goodbye to the biggest position of the 450+ funds we watch, totaling close to $13 million in stock., and Anand Parekh of Alyeska Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $10 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds in Q4.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI)?

Insider buying is best served when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time frame, PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results exhibited by our studies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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