Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Medifast, Inc. (MED)

In the financial world, there are a multitude of indicators market participants can use to monitor stocks. Some of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to look at the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are lots of motivations for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you know what to do (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to examine the newest info surrounding Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED).

What does the smart money think about Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 31% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Visium Asset Management, managed by Jacob Gottlieb, holds the biggest position in Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED). Visium Asset Management has a $32.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.8% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $9.2 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers that hold long positions include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

With a general bullishness amongst the titans, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Visium Asset Management, managed by Jacob Gottlieb, created the biggest position in Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED). Visium Asset Management had 32.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also made a $9.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

What have insiders been doing with Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED). These stocks are West Marine, Inc. (NASDAQ:WMAR), TravelCenters of America LLC (NYSEAMEX:TA), MarineMax, Inc. (NYSE:HZO), 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLWS), and Winmark Corporation (NASDAQ:WINA). This group of stocks are the members of the specialty retail, other industry and their market caps are similar to MED’s market cap.