Boston Scientific Corporation (BSX) Investors: Listen Up

Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) investors: listen up.

If you were to ask many investors, hedge funds are viewed as useless, old investment vehicles of a period lost to current times. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds trading in present day, Insider Monkey aim at the crème de la crème of this group, close to 525 funds. It is assumed that this group has its hands on most of the hedge fund industry’s total assets, and by watching their highest performing picks, we’ve brought to light a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outperformed the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as crucial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of reasons for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if you understand where to look (learn more here).

Furthermore, we’re going to examine the recent info surrounding Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX).

What does the smart money think about Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 35 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -8% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.

Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX)Out of the hedge funds we follow, Diamond Hill Capital, managed by Ric Dillon, holds the biggest position in Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX). Diamond Hill Capital has a $189.7 million position in the stock, comprising 2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors, with a $152.6 million position; 2.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that hold long positions include Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom’s Sectoral Asset Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

As Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) has experienced a fall in interest from the smart money’s best and brightest, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedge funds that slashed their full holdings at the end of the second quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management dumped the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we track, valued at an estimated $23 million in stock. Jay Venkatesen’s fund, Ayer Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $6.7 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds at the end of the second quarter.

How are insiders trading Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX). These stocks are Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE:VAR), Zimmer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ZMH), Edwards Lifesciences Corp (NYSE:EW), St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ), and Smith & Nephew plc (ADR) (NYSE:SNN). All of these stocks are in the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps are similar to BSX’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE:VAR) 20 0 9
Zimmer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ZMH) 31 0 7
Edwards Lifesciences Corp (NYSE:EW) 19 2 7
St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) 23 0 10
Smith & Nephew plc (ADR) (NYSE:SNN) 7 0 0

Using the results explained by the previously mentioned analyses, regular investors should always track hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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