Hedge Funds Are Betting On Life Technologies Corp. (LIFE)

Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE) was in 45 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. LIFE shareholders have witnessed an increase in enthusiasm from smart money lately. There were 33 hedge funds in our database with LIFE positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the eyes of most investors, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we choose to focus on the leaders of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing stock picks, we have figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. 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 trumped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Just as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the financial markets. Obviously, there are lots of incentives for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a gander at the key action encompassing Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE).

How are hedge funds trading Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 45 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 36% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly.

Of the funds we track, John Paulson’s Paulson & Co had the biggest position in Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE), worth close to $954.8 million, comprising 5.4% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Larry Robbins of Glenview Capital, with a $939.7 million position; 9.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management, Michael A. Price and Amos Meron’s Empyrean Capital Partners and John W. Rogers’s Ariel Investments.

Now, key hedge funds have jumped into Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE) headfirst. Highfields Capital Management, managed by Jonathon Jacobson, created the most outsized position in Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE). Highfields Capital Management had 64.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC also made a $37.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new LIFE investors: Carl Tiedemann and Michael Tiedemann’s TIG Advisors, Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors, and John Bader’s Halcyon Asset Management.

How have insiders been trading Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE)?

Insider buying is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE). These stocks are Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO), Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (NYSE:MTD), Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A), Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH), and Quest Diagnostics Inc (NYSE:DGX). This group of stocks belong to the 0 industry and their market caps match LIFE’s market cap.

With the returns exhibited by the aforementioned research, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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