Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. CRIS has experienced a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with CRIS positions at the end of the previous quarter.
To most market participants, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open today, we look at the leaders of this club, about 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on most of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their highest performing equity investments, we have formulated a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year 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 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).
Just as integral, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the financial markets. There are plenty of stimuli for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).
Now, let’s take a look at the key action encompassing Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS).
Hedge fund activity in Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS)
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.
Of the funds we track, Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management had the biggest position in Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS), worth close to $57.2 million, accounting for 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by OrbiMed Advisors, managed by Samuel Isaly, which held a $1.6 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Due to the fact that Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS) has witnessed bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of money managers that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies dropped the largest stake of all the hedgies we watch, worth about $0.2 million in stock. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
How have insiders been trading Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS). These stocks are Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PGNX), Coronado Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CNDO), Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:THLD), GTx, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTXI), and Oncolytics Biotech, Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:ONCY). All of these stocks are in the biotechnology industry and their market caps are closest to CRIS’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PGNX) | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| Coronado Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CNDO) | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:THLD) | 14 | 0 | 1 |
| GTx, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTXI) | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Oncolytics Biotech, Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:ONCY) | 1 | 0 | 0 |
With the results shown by our strategies, everyday investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
