C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR) was in 26 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. BCR investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. There were 25 hedge funds in our database with BCR positions at the end of the previous quarter.
If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the top tier of this group, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by paying attention to their top stock picks, we have determined a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as key, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are many incentives for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the key action surrounding C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR).
What have hedge funds been doing with C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR)?
Heading into 2013, a total of 26 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 4% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Yacktman Asset Management, managed by Donald Yacktman, holds the largest position in C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR). Yacktman Asset Management has a $724 million position in the stock, comprising 4.3% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by ValueAct Capital, managed by Jeffrey Ubben, which held a $418 million position; the fund has 5.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that are bullish include Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey’s Healthcor Management LP, David Blood and Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have jumped into C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR) headfirst. SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, established the biggest call position in C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR). SAC Capital Advisors had 29 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital also made a $23 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BCR positions are Michael A. Price and Amos Meron’s Empyrean Capital Partners, Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital, and Curtis Macnguyen’s Ivory Capital (Investment Mgmt).
What do corporate executives and insiders think about C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 13 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the returns demonstrated by the aforementioned research, everyday investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR) is an important part of this process.
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