This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Petmed Express Inc (PETS)

Is Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS) a buy, sell, or hold? The smart money is turning bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets improved by 5 recently.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are a multitude of metrics market participants can use to analyze stocks. A couple of the most underrated 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 elite money managers can beat their index-focused peers by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the stock market universe. There are a variety of stimuli for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Now, let’s take a gander at the key action encompassing Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS).

Hedge fund activity in Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 83% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the most valuable position in Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS), worth close to $16.2 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $4.2 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have jumped into Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS) headfirst. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, established the largest position in Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS). Millennium Management had 0.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $0.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new PETS positions are Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, Gregory Fraser Rudolph Kluiber and Timothy Krochuk’s GRT Capital Partners, and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.

How are insiders trading Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS). These stocks are Columbia Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRX), pSivida Corp. (NASDAQ:PSDV), Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACUR), Flamel Technologies S.A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:FLML), and Delcath Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCTH). This group of stocks are the members of the drug delivery industry and their market caps resemble PETS’s market cap.