Is Cryolife Inc (CRY) A Good Stock To Buy?

The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge funds have been producing disappointing net returns in recent years, however that was partly due to the poor performance of small-cap stocks in general. Well, small-cap stocks finally turned the corner and have been beating the large-cap stocks by more than 10 percentage points over the last 5 months.This means the relevancy of hedge funds’ public filings became inarguable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY) .

Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY) has seen a decrease in support from the world’s most successful money managers in recent months. There were 15 hedge funds in our database with CRY holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare CRY to other stocks including NACCO Industries, Inc. (NYSE:NC), Castlight Health Inc (NYSE:CSLT), and Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS) to get a better sense of its popularity.

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the key action regarding Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY).

Hedge fund activity in Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY)

At Q3’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -7% from the second quarter of 2016. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards CRY over the last 5 quarters. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies, led by Jim Simons, holds the most valuable position in Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY). Renaissance Technologies has a $10.3 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Richard Driehaus of Driehaus Capital, with a $7.4 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining members of the smart money that hold long positions consist of Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and D E Shaw. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

We already know that not all hedge funds are bullish on the stock and some hedge funds actually cashed in their positions entirely. At the top of the heap, Kenneth Tropin’s Graham Capital Management cashed in the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising about $0.5 million in stock. Glenn Russell Dubin’s fund, Highbridge Capital Management, also dumped its stock, about $0.3 million worth.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY). We will take a look at NACCO Industries, Inc. (NYSE:NC), Castlight Health Inc (NYSE:CSLT), Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ:PETS), and BlackRock Debt Strategies Fund, Inc. (NYSE:DSU). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to CRY’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 8.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $45 million. That figure was $34 million in CRY’s case. Castlight Health Inc (NYSE:CSLT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand BlackRock Debt Strategies Fund, Inc. (NYSE:DSU) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Cryolife Inc (NYSE:CRY) shares the most popular stock spot with CSLT but total dollar amount invested is relatively weak. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds bet big bucks. The stock’s forward PE ratio of 40 is also not very encouraging. We will keep an eye on the stock and look for a large hedge fund purchase before considering a position in the stock.