Here is What Hedge Funds Think About OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR)

Is OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR) a buy right now? Prominent investors are buying. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 1 in recent months.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are a multitude of indicators shareholders can use to monitor the equity markets. A duo of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. There are lots of incentives for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a peek at the key action regarding OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR).

How are hedge funds trading OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 7% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors had the most valuable position in OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR), worth close to $39 million, comprising 1.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jérôme Pfund and Michael Sjöström of Sectoral Asset Management, with a $9 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Ryan Schaper’s Point Lobos Capital and Philippe Jabre’s Jabre Capital Partners.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Moore Global Investments, managed by Louis Bacon, created the largest call position in OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR). Moore Global Investments had 0 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

Insider trading activity in OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR)

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns demonstrated by our tactics, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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