Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Cryolife Inc (CRY)

Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY) investors should be aware of an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late.

In the financial world, there are dozens of gauges market participants can use to watch their holdings. A pair of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outclass the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).

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Just as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of stimuli for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the key action encompassing Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY).

Hedge fund activity in Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY)

In preparation for this year, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 17% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the biggest position in Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY). Royce & Associates has a $6.9 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $1.9 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that are bullish include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors and David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management.

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, established the most valuable position in Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY). Millennium Management had 0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.

Insider trading activity in Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY)

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY). These stocks are RTI Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:RTIX), Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc (NASDAQ:ZLTQ), Cutera, Inc. (NASDAQ:CUTR), Solta Medical Inc (NASDAQ:SLTM), and Hansen Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:HNSN). All of these stocks are in the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps are closest to CRY’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
RTI Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:RTIX) 14 0 1
Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc (NASDAQ:ZLTQ) 4 0 1
Cutera, Inc. (NASDAQ:CUTR) 11 0 4
Solta Medical Inc (NASDAQ:SLTM) 6 0 1
Hansen Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:HNSN) 4 1 7

With the returns exhibited by the aforementioned strategies, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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