Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SCLN)?

What’s a smart SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN) investor to do?

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of indicators market participants can use to analyze stocks. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as useful, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are a number of incentives for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to examine the newest info about SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN).

What have hedge funds been doing with SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -8% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack’s Nantahala Capital Management had the biggest position in SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN), worth close to $4.6 million, accounting for 1.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $3.8 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Judging by the fact that SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN) has experienced declining interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there were a few fund managers who were dropping their full holdings last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors sold off the biggest investment of all the hedgies we watch, worth an estimated $0.5 million in stock, and Glenn Russell Dubin of Highbridge Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.1 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds last quarter.

What have insiders been doing with SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time frame, SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN). These stocks are Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PTX), Depomed Inc (NASDAQ:DEPO), DUSA Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DUSA), Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:LCI), and Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP). This group of stocks are the members of the drug manufacturers – other industry and their market caps are closest to SCLN’s market cap.

Using the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s studies, regular investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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