Here is What Hedge Funds Think About NuVasive, Inc. (NUVA)

Is NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA) a good investment?

To many of your fellow readers, hedge funds are viewed as delayed, outdated investment tools of a forgotten age. Although there are more than 8,000 hedge funds in operation in present day, Insider Monkey aim at the upper echelon of this group, close to 525 funds. It is assumed that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their best equity investments, we’ve come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have beaten the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find a sample of our picks).

Just as crucial, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the marketplace. Obviously, there are plenty of motivations for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

What’s more, let’s analyze the latest info about NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA).

How are hedge funds trading NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 21 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Healthcor Management LP, managed by Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey, holds the largest position in NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA). Healthcor Management LP has a $35.9 million position in the stock, comprising 2.2% of its 13F portfolio. On Healthcor Management LP’s heels is Jeremy Green of Redmile Group, with a $18.9 million position; the fund has 3.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that hold long positions include Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.

As industrywide interest increased, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Deerfield Management, managed by James E. Flynn, assembled the largest position in NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA). Deerfield Management had 61.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey’s Healthcor Management LP also initiated a $35.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new NUVA positions are Michael Johnston’s Steelhead Partners, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Jeremy Green’s Redmile Group.

What have insiders been doing with NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA)?

Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA). These stocks are Volcano Corporation (NASDAQ:VOLC), Masimo Corporation (NASDAQ:MASI), ArthroCare Corporation (NASDAQ:ARTC), CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD), and Wright Medical Group Inc (NASDAQ:WMGI). All of these stocks are in the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps are closest to NUVA’s market cap.

Using the returns shown by our research, average investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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