Hedge Funds Are Selling BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BCRX)

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund interest lately. This is interesting, because the stock is up big today, after continuing bullishness over its peramivir/FDA letter earlier in the week. So why would hedge funds sell?

To the average investor, there are a multitude of gauges market participants can use to track the equity markets. Some of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. There are lots of incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, it’s important to take a peek at the recent action encompassing BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX).

Hedge fund activity in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX)

In preparation for this year, a total of 4 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -43% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

Due to the fact that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) has faced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there was a specific group of funds who were dropping their full holdings heading into 2013. At the top of the heap, Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital sold off the biggest stake of all the hedgies we track, comprising close to $3 million in stock., and Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about less than $1 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds heading into 2013.

What have insiders been doing with BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) has experienced 2 unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX). These stocks are StemCells Inc (NASDAQ:STEM), EntreMed Inc (NASDAQ:ENMD), Lpath, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPTN), Transition Therapeutics Inc (USA) (NASDAQ:TTHI), and Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT). This group of stocks are the members of the biotechnology industry and their market caps are similar to BCRX’s market cap.

With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s research, retail investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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