Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Analogic Corporation (ALOG)

Is Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ:ALOG) undervalued? Hedge funds are getting less bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets went down by 1 in recent months.

To most market participants, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, old investment tools of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at the moment, we hone in on the aristocrats of this club, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by paying attention to their top equity investments, we have discovered a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 trumped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Just as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are many motivations for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a gander at the key action encompassing Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ:ALOG).

What does the smart money think about Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ:ALOG)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -7% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

Of the funds we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ:ALOG), worth close to $44.3 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $9 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Judging by the fact that Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ:ALOG) has experienced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there were a few hedgies who sold off their entire stakes in Q1. Interestingly, Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital said goodbye to the biggest position of the 450+ funds we watch, worth an estimated $6.4 million in stock.. Jacob Gottlieb’s fund, Visium Asset Management, also sold off its stock, about $1.8 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds in Q1.

How have insiders been trading Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ:ALOG)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ:ALOG) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ:ALOG). These stocks are Cubic Corporation (NYSE:CUB), ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:ESE), Ion Geophysical Corp (NYSE:IO), II-VI, Inc. (NASDAQ:IIVI), and MTS Systems Corporation (NASDAQ:MTSC). This group of stocks are in the scientific & technical instruments industry and their market caps match ALOG’s market cap.