Is Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) a marvelous investment now? Prominent investors are in an optimistic mood. The number of bullish hedge fund bets rose by 1 in recent months.
According to most market participants, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation today, we choose to focus on the elite of this club, close to 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by paying attention to their top equity investments, we have uncovered a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are plenty of incentives for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
Now, it’s important to take a glance at the recent action regarding Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH).
What does the smart money think about Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH)?
Heading into 2013, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 13% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.
Of the funds we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH), worth close to $65 million, accounting for 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $13 million position; 0% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.
Now, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, established the biggest position in Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH). SAC Capital Advisors had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the returns exhibited by the aforementioned studies, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) applies perfectly to this mantra.
Click here to learn more about Insider Monkey’s Hedge Fund Newsletter
Insider Monkey’s small-cap strategy returned 29.2% between September 2012 and February 2013 versus 8.7% for the S&P 500 index. Try it now by clicking the link above.
