To many investors, hedge funds are seen as overrated, old financial tools of an era lost to time. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds with their doors open currently, Insider Monkey aim at the crème de la crème of this club, about 525 funds. It is widely held that this group has its hands on the majority of all hedge funds’ total assets, and by paying attention to their highest quality stock picks, we’ve uncovered 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 a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started 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 (explore the details and some picks here).
Equally as useful, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to look at the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of incentives for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if investors know what to do (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to analyze the latest info surrounding DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY).
What does the smart money think about DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -9% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.
According to our 13F database, Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group had the largest position in DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY), worth close to $254.7 million, comprising 3.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Bryn Mawr Capital, managed by Ken Gray and Steve Walsh, which held a $9.6 million position; 0.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
As DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) has experienced dropping sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedge funds who sold off their positions entirely last quarter. At the top of the heap, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management dumped the largest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, totaling an estimated $26.5 million in stock, and Neil Chriss of Hutchin Hill Capital was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $4 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds last quarter.
What have insiders been doing with DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY)?
Insider buying made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time frame, DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY). These stocks are Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX), C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR), Mindray Medical International Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:MR), CareFusion Corporation (NYSE:CFN), and The Cooper Companies, Inc. (NYSE:COO). All of these stocks are in the medical instruments & supplies industry and their market caps match XRAY’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| C.R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE:BCR) | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Mindray Medical International Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:MR) | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| CareFusion Corporation (NYSE:CFN) | 34 | 0 | 0 |
| The Cooper Companies, Inc. (NYSE:COO) | 27 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results demonstrated by our strategies, average investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
Discover how hedge fund piggybacking can benefit you
Recommended Reading:
New Covidien plc (COV) Data Points To More Optimism. Did You See It?
