Hedge Funds Are Buying YM BioSciences Inc. (USA) (YMI)

Is YM BioSciences Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:YMI) a buy here? The best stock pickers are in a bullish mood. The number of bullish hedge fund bets advanced by 3 lately.

At the moment, there are many methods market participants can use to watch their holdings. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can trounce the market by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as key, bullish 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 an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if you understand where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a gander at the latest action encompassing YM BioSciences Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:YMI).

How are hedge funds trading YM BioSciences Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:YMI)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 18% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

AQR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

According to our comprehensive database, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the largest position in YM BioSciences Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:YMI). AQR Capital Management has a $29 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Discovery Capital Management, managed by Rob Citrone, which held a $25 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Michael Hintze’s CQS Cayman LP, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Nathan Fischel’s DAFNA Capital Management.

Consequently, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, established the most outsized position in YM BioSciences Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:YMI). AQR Capital Management had 29 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Michael Hintze’s CQS Cayman LP also made a $17 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new YMI investors: John Thiessen’s Vertex One Asset Management, Nancy Havens-Hasty’s Havens Advisors, and Paul Glazer’s Glazer Capital.

How are insiders trading YM BioSciences Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:YMI)?

Insider buying is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, YM BioSciences Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:YMI) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results demonstrated by our research, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and YM BioSciences Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:YMI) is an important part of this process.

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