Should You Buy Vascular Solutions, Inc. (VASC)?

In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of indicators market participants can use to track their holdings. Some of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Equally as necessary, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the financial markets. There are many motivations for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s analyze the latest info for Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC).

How are hedge funds trading Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 29% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

According to our 13F database, GAMCO Investors, managed by Mario Gabelli, holds the most valuable position in Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC). GAMCO Investors has a $4.6 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $2.9 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors and Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors.

As one would understandably expect, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. GAMCO Investors, managed by Mario Gabelli, created the largest position in Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC). GAMCO Investors had 4.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also made a $2.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new VASC positions are Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors, and Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors.

How are insiders trading Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC). These stocks are Atrion Corporation (NASDAQ:ATRI), Unilife Corp (NASDAQ:UNIS), Alphatec Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:ATEC), STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA), and OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR). This group of stocks are the members of the medical instruments & supplies industry and their market caps match VASC’s market cap.