Is Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) a sound investment now? The best stock pickers are buying. The number of bullish hedge fund bets improved by 3 lately.
To the average investor, there are a multitude of metrics investors can use to track stocks. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a superb margin (see just how much).
Equally as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if investors understand where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the latest action encompassing Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO).
What have hedge funds been doing with Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 21 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.
According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO). Royce & Associates has a $159.1 million position in the stock, comprising 0.5% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by John W. Rogers of Ariel Investments, with a $128.8 million position; the fund has 2.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies, Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group and Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management.
Consequently, key money managers have jumped into Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) headfirst. Senator Investment Group, managed by Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin, initiated the biggest position in Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO). Senator Investment Group had 63.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC also made a $38.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new BIO investors: Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, and David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments.
How have insiders been trading Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO)?
Bullish insider trading is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO). These stocks are Sensata Technologies Holding N.V. (NYSE:ST), FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC), Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD), Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR), and Compagnie Generale de Gephysqu Vrts SA (NYSE:CGG). This group of stocks are in the scientific & technical instruments industry and their market caps resemble BIO’s market cap.
