Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. GIVN shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with GIVN positions at the end of the previous quarter.
Equally as integral, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of incentives for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a gander at the recent action regarding Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN).
Hedge fund activity in Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN)
Heading into 2013, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -18% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.
Of the funds we track, Omega Advisors, managed by Leon Cooperman, holds the largest position in Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN). Omega Advisors has a $37 million position in the stock, comprising 0.7% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Sectoral Asset Management, managed by Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom, which held a $21 million position; the fund has 0.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors, James Dinan’s York Capital Management and Nathan Fischel’s DAFNA Capital Management.
Since Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN) has faced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that elected to cut their entire stakes at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Richard Schimel’s Diamondback Capital dumped the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, totaling an estimated $4 million in stock.. James E. Flynn’s fund, Deerfield Management, also dumped its stock, about $3 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds at the end of the year.
What have insiders been doing with Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN)?
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, 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 Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN). These stocks are Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO), Symmetry Medical Inc. (NYSE:SMA), Invacare Corporation (NYSE:IVC), Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII), and MAKO Surgical Corp. (NASDAQ:MAKO). This group of stocks are the members of the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps are similar to GIVN’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO) | 14 | 0 | 5 |
| Symmetry Medical Inc. (NYSE:SMA) | 9 | 0 | 2 |
| Invacare Corporation (NYSE:IVC) | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII) | 6 | 1 | 4 |
| MAKO Surgical Corp. (NASDAQ:MAKO) | 13 | 2 | 0 |
With the returns shown by the aforementioned tactics, everyday investors should always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN) is an important part of this process.
