Is Landauer, Inc. (LDR) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Landauer, Inc. (NYSE:LDR) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately.

In today’s marketplace, there are plenty of metrics shareholders can use to track publicly traded companies. Some of the most useful 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 hedge fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of motivations for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the key action regarding Landauer, Inc. (NYSE:LDR).

What does the smart money think about Landauer, Inc. (NYSE:LDR)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 75% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Landauer, Inc. (NYSE:LDR). Royce & Associates has a $54.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $3.9 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. First Pacific Advisors LLC, managed by Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick, established the biggest position in Landauer, Inc. (NYSE:LDR). First Pacific Advisors LLC had 0.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new LDR investors: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

What have insiders been doing with Landauer, Inc. (NYSE:LDR)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time frame, Landauer, Inc. (NYSE:LDR) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Landauer, Inc. (NYSE:LDR). These stocks are Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI), Rudolph Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:RTEC), FARO Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:FARO), Measurement Specialties, Inc. (NASDAQ:MEAS), and Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM). This group of stocks are the members of the scientific & technical instruments industry and their market caps are closest to LDR’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, retail investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Landauer, Inc. (NYSE:LDR) is an important part of this process.

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