Is SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN) an attractive investment today? The best stock pickers are becoming more confident. The number of long hedge fund bets moved up by 2 lately.
According to most traders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, outdated financial tools of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, we at Insider Monkey look at the bigwigs of this club, around 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group oversees most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their best equity investments, we have figured out a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading activity is a second way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are lots of incentives for a corporate insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors understand where to look (learn more here).
Now, it’s important to take a peek at the latest action surrounding SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN).
How have hedgies been trading SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN)?
Heading into 2013, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 20% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.
Of the funds we track, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the biggest position in SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN). AQR Capital Management has a $2.3 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which held a $2.2 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that hold long positions include Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors, Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack’s Nantahala Capital Management and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.
As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have jumped into SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN) headfirst. Nantahala Capital Management, managed by Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack, assembled the largest position in SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN). Nantahala Capital Management had 0.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital also made a $0.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SCLN investors: Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.
Insider trading activity in SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN)
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN). These stocks are Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PTX), Depomed Inc (NASDAQ:DEPO), DUSA Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DUSA), Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:LCI), and Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP). All of these stocks are in the drug manufacturers – other industry and their market caps are closest to SCLN’s market cap.
