Should You Buy IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX)? – Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL), Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO)

IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late.

If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as slow, old financial vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the upper echelon of this group, about 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group has its hands on most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by watching their highest performing stock picks, we have identified a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. 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 began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (see all of our picks from August).

Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are lots of reasons for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Now, let’s take a peek at the key action encompassing IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX).

What does the smart money think about IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 57% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX), worth close to $218 million, comprising 0.7% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which held a $5 million position; the fund has 0% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, established the most outsized position in IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX). Millennium Management had 5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $5 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new IDXX investors: D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Mike Vranos’s Ellington.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time period, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX). These stocks are Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NASDAQ:SNTA), Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL), Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO), Abaxis Inc (NASDAQ:ABAX), and Neogen Corporation (NASDAQ:NEOG). All of these stocks are in the diagnostic substances industry and their market caps are closest to IDXX’s market cap.

With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s strategies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) applies perfectly to this mantra.