Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT) has experienced a decrease in hedge fund interest lately.
In the financial world, there are plenty of gauges market participants can use to analyze stocks. A duo of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top investment managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid margin (see just how much).
Just as important, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of reasons for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action encompassing Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT).
What have hedge funds been doing with Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT)?
Heading into Q2, a total of 34 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -6% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.
Of the funds we track, Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital had the most valuable position in Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT), worth close to $284.6 million, comprising 3% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Levin Capital Strategies, managed by John A. Levin, which held a $227.6 million position; 4.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Ralph V. Whitworth’s Relational Investors, Bill Miller’s Legg Mason Capital Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Seeing as Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there exists a select few fund managers that slashed their full holdings at the end of the first quarter. Intriguingly, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies we monitor, totaling an estimated $30.1 million in stock., and Malcolm Fairbairn of Ascend Capital was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $18.4 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds at the end of the first quarter.
How have insiders been trading Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT). These stocks are St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ), Zimmer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ZMH), Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG), Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK), and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT). This group of stocks are in the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps resemble MDT’s market cap.
