Vascular Solutions, Inc. (VASC): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?: Atrion Corporation (ATRI), Unilife Corp (UNIS)

Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. VASC has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with VASC holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are tons of indicators shareholders can use to watch publicly traded companies. A couple 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 best fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as important, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of stimuli for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action regarding Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC).

Hedge fund activity in Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC)

In preparation for this year, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 29% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the most valuable position in Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC), worth close to $5 million, accounting for 0% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $2 million position; the fund has 0% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

Consequently, some big names have been driving this bullishness. McKinley Capital Management, managed by Robert B. Gillam, created the biggest position in Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC). McKinley Capital Management had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new VASC position is Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.

Insider trading activity in Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC)

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:VASC) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity 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 belong to the medical instruments & supplies industry and their market caps resemble VASC’s market cap.