Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEGR) has seen an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months.
In the eyes of most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, old investment tools of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, we at Insider Monkey look at the upper echelon of this group, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by monitoring their top picks, we have deciphered a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are many motivations for an insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action surrounding Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEGR).
What does the smart money think about Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEGR)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 43% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.
Of the funds we track, Joseph Edelman’s Perceptive Advisors had the biggest position in Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEGR), worth close to $136.1 million, accounting for 16.4% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Baker Bros. Advisors, managed by Julian Baker and Felix Baker, which held a $34.8 million position; 0.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital, and Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Perceptive Advisors, managed by Joseph Edelman, assembled the largest call position in Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEGR). Perceptive Advisors had 8.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Christopher Medlock James’s Partner Fund Management also made a $7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new AEGR investors: Joe DiMenna’s ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS, Scott Burney’s Bluefin Investment Management, and Drew Cupps’s Cupps Capital Management.
What have insiders been doing with Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEGR)?
Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEGR) has experienced 3 unique insiders purchasing, and 1 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 Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEGR). These stocks are Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL), Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ICPT), Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:NBIX), Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX), and Impax Laboratories Inc (NASDAQ:IPXL). This group of stocks are the members of the drug manufacturers – major industry and their market caps match AEGR’s market cap.
