Is Given Imaging Ltd. (GIVN) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN) was in 14 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. GIVN has seen an increase in enthusiasm from smart money lately. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with GIVN holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are many methods investors can use to track publicly traded companies. Some of the most under-the-radar 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 investment managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as important, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are a variety of stimuli for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action encompassing Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN).

What have hedge funds been doing with Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 56% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors had the most valuable position in Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN), worth close to $14 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Sectoral Asset Management, managed by Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom, which held a $11.4 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include James Dinan’s York Capital Management, Nathan Fischel’s DAFNA Capital Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

As one would reasonably expect, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. CR Intrinsic Investors, managed by SAC Subsidiary, initiated the most outsized position in Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN). CR Intrinsic Investors had 1.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also initiated a $0.9 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new GIVN investors: Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, Jeremy Green’s Redmile Group, and Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital.

Insider trading activity in Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN)

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time frame, Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, 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 Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN). These stocks are Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO), Symmetry Medical Inc. (NYSE:SMA), Invacare Corporation (NYSE:IVC), Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII), and MAKO Surgical Corp. (NASDAQ:MAKO). This group of stocks belong to the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps match GIVN’s market cap.