Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (VIVO): Hedge Funds and Insiders Are Bullish, What Should You Do?

Is Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO) worth your attention right now? The best stock pickers are betting on the stock. The number of long hedge fund bets rose by 2 in recent months.

At the moment, there are tons of metrics market participants can use to monitor their holdings. Some of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can outclass the market by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. There are a number of reasons for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the latest action encompassing Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO).

How have hedgies been trading Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO)?

At year’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 33% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Ken Grossman and Glen Schneider’s SG Capital Management had the biggest position in Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO), worth close to $5.8 million, accounting for 3.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors, with a $1.6 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, initiated the biggest position in Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO). Renaissance Technologies had 0.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new VIVO position is Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO). These stocks are AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAG), Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NASDAQ:SNTA), Neogen Corporation (NASDAQ:NEOG), Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL), and Abaxis Inc (NASDAQ:ABAX). All of these stocks are in the diagnostic substances industry and their market caps are similar to VIVO’s market cap.

With the returns shown by the aforementioned time-tested strategies, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds