Should You Buy Cynosure, Inc. (CYNO)?

Is Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO) a first-rate investment now? Hedge funds are buying. The number of long hedge fund positions advanced by 1 in recent months.

In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, outdated investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we hone in on the top tier of this group, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by tracking their top picks, we have figured out a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year 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 outperformed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. There are plenty of reasons for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action regarding Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO).

What does the smart money think about Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 7% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Constantinos J. Christofilis’s Archon Capital Management had the biggest position in Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO), worth close to $17.7 million, accounting for 9.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Ken Grossman and Glen Schneider of SG Capital Management, with a $8.3 million position; 4.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds that hold long positions include Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Consequently, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Columbus Circle Investors, managed by Donald Chiboucis, assembled the most outsized position in Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO). Columbus Circle Investors had 1.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp also made a $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new CYNO positions are Carl Tiedemann and Michael Tiedemann’s TIG Advisors, Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

What have insiders been doing with Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO). These stocks are Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII), Natus Medical Inc (NASDAQ:BABY), Invacare Corporation (NYSE:IVC), Symmetry Medical Inc. (NYSE:SMA), and GenMark Diagnostics, Inc (NASDAQ:GNMK). This group of stocks are in the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps match CYNO’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by the aforementioned time-tested strategies, retail investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds