In today’s marketplace, there are plenty of gauges investors can use to monitor Mr. Market. A pair of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can beat the market by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Equally as useful, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the stock market universe. There are lots of incentives for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s study the latest info about Greatbatch Inc (NYSE:GB).
What does the smart money think about Greatbatch Inc (NYSE:GB)?
At Q2’s end, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -40% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.
When using filings from the hedgies we track, Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital had the largest position in Greatbatch Inc (NYSE:GB), worth close to $19.4 million, accounting for 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors, with a $9.4 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Judging by the fact that Greatbatch Inc (NYSE:GB) has experienced declining interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few funds that slashed their entire stakes in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management dumped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we track, valued at close to $1.1 million in stock, and Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds in Q1.
What have insiders been doing with Greatbatch Inc (NYSE:GB)?
Bullish insider trading is best served when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Greatbatch Inc (NYSE:GB) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Greatbatch Inc (NYSE:GB). These stocks are NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA), The Spectranetics Corporation (NASDAQ:SPNC), NxStage Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTM), Orthofix International NV (NASDAQ:OFIX), and ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD). This group of stocks are in the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps resemble GB’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA) | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| The Spectranetics Corporation (NASDAQ:SPNC) | 18 | 0 | 0 |
| NxStage Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTM) | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| Orthofix International NV (NASDAQ:OFIX) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns demonstrated by our strategies, average investors must always track hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Greatbatch Inc (NYSE:GB) is an important part of this process.
