Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Given Imaging Ltd. (GIVN) Anymore

At the moment, there are plenty of methods shareholders can use to track stocks. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Just as necessary, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the financial markets. There are many incentives for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Thus, we’re going to analyze the recent info surrounding Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN).

What have hedge funds been doing with Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -21% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Stephen DuBois’s Camber Capital Management had the biggest position in Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN), worth close to $21 million, comprising 2.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is York Capital Management, managed by James Dinan, which held a $3 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Nathan Fischel’s DAFNA Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Judging by the fact that Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN) has experienced bearish sentiment from the top-tier hedge fund industry, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who were dropping their positions entirely heading into Q2. Intriguingly, Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom’s Sectoral Asset Management cut the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, comprising close to $11.4 million in stock, and SAC Subsidiary of Cr Intrinsic Investors was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $1.6 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds heading into Q2.

What have insiders been doing with Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN). These stocks are Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO), Symmetry Medical Inc. (NYSE:SMA), Invacare Corporation (NYSE:IVC), Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII), and MAKO Surgical Corp. (NASDAQ:MAKO). All of these stocks are in the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps are similar to GIVN’s market cap.