Should You Buy Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (PCRX)?

It seems that the masses and most of the financial media hate hedge funds and what they do, but why is this hatred of hedge funds so prominent? At the end of the day, these asset management firms do not gamble the hard-earned money of the people who are on the edge of poverty. Truth be told, most hedge fund managers and other smaller players within this industry are very smart and skilled investors. Of course, they may also make wrong bets in some instances, but no one knows what the future holds and how market participants will react to the bountiful news that floods in each day. The S&P 500 Index gained 5.2% in the 12 month-period that ended October 30, while less than 49% of its stocks beat the benchmark. In contrast, the 30 most popular S&P 500 stocks among the hedge fund investors tracked by the Insider Monkey team returned 9.5% over the same period, which provides evidence that these money managers do have great stock picking abilities. Even more to that, 63% of these stocks managed to beat the S&P 500 Index. That’s why we believe it isn’t a waste of time to check out hedge fund sentiment before you invest in a stock like Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX).

Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX) was in 29 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. PCRX has seen an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. There were 25 hedge funds in our database with PCRX holdings at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as WebMD Health Corp. (NASDAQ:WBMD), Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:LCI), and Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc (NYSE:IVR) to gather more data points.

With all of this in mind, we’re going to view the latest action encompassing Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX).

How have hedgies been trading Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 29 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 16% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management has the most valuable position in Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX), worth close to $121.3 million, comprising 1.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is John Lykouretzos of Hoplite Capital Management, with a $58.4 million position; 2.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that hold long positions comprise Mariko Gordon’s Daruma Asset Management, David S. Winter and David J. Millstone’s 40 North Management and James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management.