Should You Avoid OraSure Technologies, Inc. (OSUR)?

OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR) investors should pay attention to a decrease in hedge fund interest recently.

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of gauges shareholders can use to monitor their holdings. A pair of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can beat the broader indices by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, positive insider trading activity is another way to parse down the stock market universe. There are lots of stimuli for an insider 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 strategy if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action encompassing OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR).

Hedge fund activity in OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR)

At Q1’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -6% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors had the biggest position in OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR), worth close to $29.2 million, comprising 0.7% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom of Sectoral Asset Management, with a $8.6 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Philippe Jabre’s Jabre Capital Partners.

Seeing as OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR) has faced bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few fund managers who sold off their positions entirely at the end of the first quarter. It’s worth mentioning that SAC Subsidiary’s Sigma Capital Management cut the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, comprising an estimated $1.1 million in stock., and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds at the end of the first quarter.

How have insiders been trading OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s research, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR) is no exception.

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