Is AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX) the right investment to pursue these days? Investors who are in the know are in an optimistic mood. The number of bullish hedge fund positions improved by 3 recently.
To most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, old investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, we look at the bigwigs of this club, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by paying attention to their top investments, we have spotted a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if shareholders understand where to look (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a glance at the recent action surrounding AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX).
How have hedgies been trading AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX)?
Heading into 2013, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 100% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.
Of the funds we track, Joseph Edelman’s Perceptive Advisors had the biggest position in AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX), worth close to $21.3 million, accounting for 3.8% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Driehaus Capital, managed by Richard Driehaus, which held a $1.5 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Kroch’s GRT Capital Partners, Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments and John Osterweis’s Osterweis Capital Management.
Consequently, key money managers have jumped into AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX) headfirst. Perceptive Advisors, managed by Joseph Edelman, assembled the most valuable position in AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX). Perceptive Advisors had 21.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital also initiated a $1.5 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ACRX investors: Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
What have insiders been doing with AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX)?
Insider buying is best served when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX). These stocks are Horizon Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:HZNP), Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPE), TherapeuticsMD Inc (OTC:TXMD), Zogenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZGNX), and SIGA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGA). This group of stocks belong to the drug manufacturers – major industry and their market caps are closest to ACRX’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Horizon Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:HZNP) | 7 | 0 | 5 |
| Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPE) | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| TherapeuticsMD Inc (OTC:TXMD) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Zogenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZGNX) | 7 | 4 | 0 |
| SIGA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGA) | 3 | 0 | 0 |
With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s studies, everyday investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
