STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. STAA shareholders have witnessed a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with STAA positions at the end of the previous quarter.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are dozens of methods market participants can use to track stocks. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a superb margin (see just how much).
Equally as important, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if investors understand what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the key action encompassing STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA).
How have hedgies been trading STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA)?
Heading into Q2, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Neal C. Bradsher’s Broadwood Capital had the biggest position in STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA), worth close to $36 million, comprising 10.5% of its total 13F portfolio. On Broadwood Capital’s heels is Palo Alto Investors, managed by William Leland Edwards, which held a $19.4 million position; 2.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Phil Frohlich’s Prescott Group Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
Due to the fact that STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA) has witnessed declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers who sold off their full holdings last quarter. Interestingly, Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital said goodbye to the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, worth an estimated $1.9 million in stock., and Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.2 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
What have insiders been doing with STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA)?
Insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA). These stocks are Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB), Rochester Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:ROCM), Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD), Unilife Corp (NASDAQ:UNIS), and Alphatec Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:ATEC). This group of stocks are the members of the medical instruments & supplies industry and their market caps are similar to STAA’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB) | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Rochester Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:ROCM) | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD) | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Unilife Corp (NASDAQ:UNIS) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Alphatec Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:ATEC) | 7 | 1 | 6 |
With the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s tactics, retail investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA) applies perfectly to this mantra.
