Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (HITK) Anymore

Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK) investors should be aware of a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of indicators shareholders can use to monitor stocks. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as key, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are a number of stimuli for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Various academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a glance at the recent action encompassing Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK).

How have hedgies been trading Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -9% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the biggest position in Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK). Royce & Associates has a $55.3 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by OrbiMed Advisors, managed by Samuel Isaly, which held a $13.4 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Kevin Kotler’s Broadfin Capital, Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Seeing as Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK) has faced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there was a specific group of fund managers who were dropping their entire stakes at the end of the first quarter. At the top of the heap, Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital dropped the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, totaling about $0.5 million in stock., and Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds at the end of the first quarter.

Insider trading activity in Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK)

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time frame, Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK). These stocks are Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SUPN), Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNTA), Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:LGND), Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVNR), and Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT). This group of stocks are the members of the drugs – generic industry and their market caps are similar to HITK’s market cap.

With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s tactics, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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