Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Seattle Genetics, Inc. (SGEN)?

At the moment, there are a multitude of metrics shareholders can use to monitor stocks. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can beat the market by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to look at the stock market universe. Obviously, there are plenty of motivations for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s discuss the newest info surrounding Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN).

What have hedge funds been doing with Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 63% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Julian Baker and Felix Baker’s Baker Bros. Advisors had the most valuable position in Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN), worth close to $607.9 million, comprising 12% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by D. E. Shaw of D E Shaw, with a $16.1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom’s Sectoral Asset Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors.

Consequently, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Baker Bros. Advisors, managed by Julian Baker and Felix Baker, created the largest position in Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN). Baker Bros. Advisors had 607.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also made a $16.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom’s Sectoral Asset Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, and Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors.

What have insiders been doing with Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN). These stocks are Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ONXX), Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY), Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc – Ordinary Shares (NASDAQ:JAZZ), Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA), and Medivation Inc (NASDAQ:MDVN). All of these stocks are in the biotechnology industry and their market caps match SGEN’s market cap.