This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Solazyme Inc (SZYM)

Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM) investors should be aware of an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently.

At the moment, there are dozens of gauges market participants can use to monitor stocks. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top fund managers can outpace the market by a solid amount (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the marketplace. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a peek at the recent action regarding Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM).

How have hedgies been trading Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 10% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, John Burbank’s Passport Capital had the most valuable position in Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM), worth close to $7.4 million, accounting for 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, which held a $3.9 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., Andrew R. Midler’s Savitr Capital and John Murphy’s Alydar Capital.

As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Alydar Capital, managed by John Murphy, created the biggest position in Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM). Alydar Capital had 1.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. William Harnisch’s Peconic Partners LLC also initiated a $1.1 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management.

What have insiders been doing with Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time period, Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM). These stocks are LSB Industries, Inc. (NYSE:LXU), Landec Corporation (NASDAQ:LNDC), Rentech, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:RTK), and FutureFuel Corp. (NYSE:FF). This group of stocks are in the chemicals – major diversified industry and their market caps resemble SZYM’s market cap.