Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love QLT Inc. (USA) (QLTI)?

QLT Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:QLTI) has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently.

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of metrics shareholders can use to track stocks. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the financial markets. There are lots of stimuli for an insider 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 valuable potential of this method if “monkeys” understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a gander at the key action regarding QLT Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:QLTI).

Hedge fund activity in QLT Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:QLTI)

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

Of the funds we track, Eliav Assouline and Marc Andersen’s Axial Capital had the most valuable position in QLT Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:QLTI), worth close to $78.4 million, accounting for 9.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Kingstown Capital Management, managed by Michael Blitzer, which held a $26.5 million position; the fund has 4.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich’s Scopia Capital, William Leland Edwards’s Palo Alto Investors and Julian Baker and Felix Baker’s Baker Bros. Advisors.

Judging by the fact that QLT Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:QLTI) has witnessed a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that elected to cut their full holdings in Q1. Intriguingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management cut the biggest investment of all the hedgies we monitor, totaling an estimated $4.3 million in stock.. Philip Hempleman’s fund, Ardsley Partners, also cut its stock, about $0.1 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading QLT Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:QLTI)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, QLT Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:QLTI) has experienced 2 unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to QLT Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:QLTI). These stocks are Emergent Biosolutions Inc (NYSE:EBS), Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ:SQNM), Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IDIX), Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ:DYAX), and Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPPI). This group of stocks belong to the biotechnology industry and their market caps match QLTI’s market cap.