Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Cytokinetics, Inc. (CYTK)

Is Cytokinetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTK) the right pick for your portfolio? Prominent investors are in a bullish mood. The number of bullish hedge fund bets inched up by 1 in recent months.

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of indicators investors can use to analyze publicly traded companies. Two of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the stock market universe. There are a variety of stimuli for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the recent action regarding Cytokinetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTK).

What have hedge funds been doing with Cytokinetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTK)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 14% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

Of the funds we track, James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management had the largest position in Cytokinetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTK), worth close to $14.7 million, comprising 0.9% of its total 13F portfolio. On Deerfield Management’s heels is Lansdowne Partners, managed by Paul Ruddock and Steve Heinz, which held a $11.9 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include William Leland Edwards’s Palo Alto Investors, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group and Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group.

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. LMR Partners, managed by Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold, created the most outsized position in Cytokinetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTK). LMR Partners had 0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.

How are insiders trading Cytokinetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTK)?

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 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Cytokinetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTK) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns demonstrated by the aforementioned studies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Cytokinetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTK) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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