Hedge Funds Are Buying VCA Antech Inc (WOOF)

In the eyes of many investors, hedge funds are viewed as useless, old financial tools of a forgotten age. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open today, Insider Monkey focuses on the top tier of this group, about 525 funds. It is assumed that this group oversees the majority of the smart money’s total assets, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing investments, we’ve come up with a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 outclassed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find a sample of our picks).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of reasons for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Furthermore, we’re going to analyze the recent info about VCA Antech Inc (NASDAQ:WOOF).

What does the smart money think about VCA Antech Inc (NASDAQ:WOOF)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 31 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 35% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Eminence Capital, managed by Ricky Sandler, holds the most valuable position in VCA Antech Inc (NASDAQ:WOOF). Eminence Capital has a $125.6 million position in the stock, comprising 3.1% of its 13F portfolio. On Eminence Capital’s heels is P2 Capital Partners, managed by Claus Moller, which held a $47.5 million position; the fund has 7.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds with similar optimism include Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Andrew J. M. Spokes’s Farallon Capital.

As industrywide interest increased, certain bigger names were breaking ground themselves. Eminence Capital, managed by Ricky Sandler, created the most valuable position in VCA Antech Inc (NASDAQ:WOOF). Eminence Capital had 125.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Claus Moller’s P2 Capital Partners also made a $47.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new WOOF investors: Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Andrew J. M. Spokes’s Farallon Capital.

Insider trading activity in VCA Antech Inc (NASDAQ:WOOF)

Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time frame, VCA Antech Inc (NASDAQ:WOOF) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to VCA Antech Inc (NASDAQ:WOOF). These stocks are G&K Services Inc (NASDAQ:GK), Regis Corporation (NYSE:RGS), Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI), Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW), and Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc (NYSE:BFAM). This group of stocks are in the personal services industry and their market caps are similar to WOOF’s market cap.

Using the results explained by our studies, average investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and VCA Antech Inc (NASDAQ:WOOF) is an important part of this process.

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