Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (VIVO) Anymore

We can judge whether Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO) is a good investment right now by following the lead of some of the best investors in the world and piggybacking their ideas. There’s no better way to get these firms’ immense resources and analytical capabilities working for us than to follow their lead into their best ideas. While not all of these picks will be winners, research shows that these picks historically outperformed the market when we factor in known risk factors.

Is Meridian Bioscience, Inc. a buy, sell, or hold? The best stock pickers are reducing their bets on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund positions dropped by 2 recently. VIVO was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 17 hedge funds in our database with VIVO positions at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity, but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Revance Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RVNC), Libbey Inc. (NYSEMKT:LBY), and Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRKL) to gather more data points.

According to most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be underperforming, old investment vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading at present, We hone in on the masters of this club, about 700 funds. These money managers control the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by watching their first-class stock picks, Insider Monkey has spotted many investment strategies that have historically surpassed the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per annum for a decade in their back tests.

With all of this in mind, let’s take a gander at the latest action encompassing Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO).

How are hedge funds trading Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a drop of 12% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies has the number one position in Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO), worth close to $23.8 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Robert B. Gillam of McKinley Capital Management, with a $4.4 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism comprise Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors.

Due to the fact that Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO) has experienced a decline in interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there were a few hedgies that elected to cut their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. At the top of the heap, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors said goodbye to the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $1.8 million in stock, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $1.4 million worth of stock. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO). These stocks are Revance Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RVNC), Libbey Inc. (NYSEMKT:LBY), Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRKL), and Isle of Capri Casinos (NASDAQ:ISLE). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to VIVO’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $84 million. That figure was $45 million in VIVO’s case. Isle of Capri Casinos (NASDAQ:ISLE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Revance Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RVNC) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ISLE might be a better candidate to consider a long position.