Hedge Funds Are Buying Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (HBIO)

Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO) was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. HBIO shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with HBIO positions at the end of the previous quarter.

To the average investor, there are a multitude of gauges investors can use to monitor publicly traded companies. Some of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can beat the S&P 500 by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of motivations for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors know what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action encompassing Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO).

What have hedge funds been doing with Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 60% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Central Square Management, managed by Kelly Cardwell, holds the most valuable position in Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO). Central Square Management has a $6.7 million position in the stock, comprising 6.1% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $4.3 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, initiated the most outsized position in Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO). Royce & Associates had 4.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $0.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new HBIO positions are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Mike Vranos’s Ellington.

Insider trading activity in Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO). These stocks are Derma Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:DSCI), Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD), Rochester Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:ROCM), Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB), and AtriCure Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRC). This group of stocks are the members of the medical instruments & supplies industry and their market caps match HBIO’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by the aforementioned time-tested strategies, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO) is an important part of this process.

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