Hedge Funds Are Betting On Stericycle Inc (SRCL)

Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL) investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund sentiment recently.

To the average investor, there are many gauges market participants can use to monitor their holdings. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of reasons for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a look at the key action encompassing Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL).

What have hedge funds been doing with Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 50% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the biggest position in Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL). Renaissance Technologies has a $26.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley of Polar Capital, with a $11.1 million position; 0.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds with similar optimism include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Polar Capital, managed by Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley, assembled the most valuable position in Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL). Polar Capital had 11.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP also made a $2.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SRCL investors: Israel Englander’s Catapult Capital Management, Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital, and Phil Frohlich’s Prescott Group Capital Management.

Insider trading activity in Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL)

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time frame, Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 7 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 Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL). These stocks are Clean Harbors Inc (NYSE:CLH), Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN), Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM), Veolia Environnement SA (ADR) (NYSE:VE), and Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG). All of these stocks are in the waste management industry and their market caps are closest to SRCL’s market cap.