Santarus, Inc. (SNTS): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Undecided, What Should You Do?

What should a smart Santarus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNTS) investor do?

In the financial world, there are a multitude of gauges investors can use to watch publicly traded companies. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outclass the market by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, positive insider trading activity is another way to look at the marketplace. There are a number of incentives for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Furthermore, we’re going to discuss the newest info surrounding Santarus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNTS).

How have hedgies been trading Santarus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNTS)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 21 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 40% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the most valuable position in Santarus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNTS), worth close to $56.5 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Visium Asset Management, managed by Jacob Gottlieb, which held a $42.1 million position; the fund has 1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Joseph Edelman’s Perceptive Advisors and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

As aggregate interest spiked, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, initiated the most outsized position in Santarus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNTS). Renaissance Technologies had 56.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management also initiated a $42.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Joseph Edelman’s Perceptive Advisors, and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

How have insiders been trading Santarus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNTS)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, Santarus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNTS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Santarus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNTS). These stocks are MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD), PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI), Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT), Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LXRX), and VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS). This group of stocks are in the biotechnology industry and their market caps resemble SNTS’s market cap.

Using the results shown by Insider Monkey’s analyses, regular investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Santarus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNTS) is no exception.

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