In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of gauges shareholders can use to watch stocks. A pair of the most innovative 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 elite money managers can beat the broader indices by a healthy margin (see just how much).
Just as useful, bullish insider trading activity is another way to analyze the financial markets. There are a variety of reasons for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, it’s important to discuss the newest info surrounding Charles River Laboratories (NYSE:CRL).
How are hedge funds trading Charles River Laboratories (NYSE:CRL)?
At Q2’s end, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -10% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, Ariel Investments, managed by John W. Rogers, holds the biggest position in Charles River Laboratories (NYSE:CRL). Ariel Investments has a $112.2 million position in the stock, comprising 1.8% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $48.6 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.
Because Charles River Laboratories (NYSE:CRL) has experienced a fall in interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few money managers that decided to sell off their full holdings at the end of the second quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Daniel Arbess’s Xerion cut the largest position of the 450+ funds we track, comprising about $2.5 million in stock. Dmitry Balyasny’s fund, Balyasny Asset Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $2.2 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds at the end of the second quarter.
How have insiders been trading Charles River Laboratories (NYSE:CRL)?
Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Charles River Laboratories (NYSE:CRL) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Charles River Laboratories (NYSE:CRL). These stocks are Viropharma Inc (NASDAQ:VPHM), Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA), Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:QCOR), Theravance Inc (NASDAQ:THRX), and Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:INFI). This group of stocks belong to the biotechnology industry and their market caps are closest to CRL’s market cap.
