Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SVNT): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Is Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT) ready to raly soon? Prominent investors are taking a bearish view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets retreated by 1 in recent months.

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of metrics shareholders can use to watch their holdings. Some of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can trounce the broader indices by a solid amount (see just how much).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of motivations for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action encompassing Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT).

How have hedgies been trading Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 5 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -17% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, William Leland Edwards’s Palo Alto Investors had the most valuable position in Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT), worth close to $11.8 million, accounting for 1.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which held a $0.4 million call position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies with similar optimism include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Seeing as Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT) has witnessed declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there is a sect of funds that elected to cut their full holdings heading into 2013. At the top of the heap, William Leland Edwards’s Palo Alto Investors dumped the largest stake of the 450+ funds we track, totaling about $3.1 million in stock.. Jim Simons’s fund, Renaissance Technologies, also dumped its stock, about $0.5 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds heading into 2013.

Insider trading activity in Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT)

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest half-year time frame, Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT). These stocks are Imprimis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IMMY), Celsion Corporation (NASDAQ:CLSN), EntreMed Inc (NASDAQ:ENMD), BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX), and Transition Therapeutics Inc (USA) (NASDAQ:TTHI). This group of stocks are in the biotechnology industry and their market caps match SVNT’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s strategies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT) is an important part of this process.

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