Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (SGNT): Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (MNTA), Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (HITK)

Sagent Pharmaceuticals IncIs Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT) an exceptional investment right now? Money managers are becoming hopeful. The number of long hedge fund bets improved by 3 in recent months.

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of indicators shareholders can use to track the equity markets. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top investment managers can outperform the market by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of incentives for a bullish insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a gander at the latest action encompassing Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT).

How have hedgies been trading Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT)?

At year’s end, a total of 11 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 38% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management had the most valuable position in Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT), worth close to $34.6 million, accounting for 1.9% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom of Sectoral Asset Management, with a $12.8 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management, Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Now, key hedge funds have jumped into Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT) headfirst. Kingdon Capital, managed by Mark Kingdon, initiated the largest position in Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT). Kingdon Capital had 5.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $0.4 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new SGNT position is David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management.

How have insiders been trading Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT). These stocks are Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX), Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNTA), Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVNR), Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK), and Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:LGND). All of these stocks are in the drugs – generic industry and their market caps are similar to SGNT’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX) 10 1 5
Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNTA) 12 0 8
Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVNR) 4 1 2
Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. (NASDAQ:HITK) 11 0 5
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:LGND) 5 6 1

With the returns exhibited by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SGNT) is an important part of this process.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds