Is Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP) an attractive investment right now? The best stock pickers are becoming more confident. The number of bullish hedge fund positions increased by 1 lately.
In the financial world, there are tons of indicators market participants can use to monitor the equity markets. Two of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a significant margin (see just how much).
Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Obviously, there are plenty of incentives for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, let’s take a look at the key action encompassing Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP).
What have hedge funds been doing with Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 4 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 33% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.
As industrywide interest jumped, some big names have jumped into Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP) headfirst. Broadfin Capital, managed by Kevin Kotler, assembled the largest position in Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP). Broadfin Capital had 0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
What have insiders been doing with Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 3 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP). These stocks are Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PTX), Depomed Inc (NASDAQ:DEPO), SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN), and Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:LCI). This group of stocks are the members of the drug manufacturers – other industry and their market caps are closest to SCMP’s market cap.
Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PTX) | 4 | 0 | 1 |
Depomed Inc (NASDAQ:DEPO) | 11 | 1 | 2 |
SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:LCI) | 2 | 2 | 4 |
With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned tactics, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP) is an important part of this process.