Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Cardiovascular Systems Inc (CSII)

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Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII) has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money of late.

If you’d ask most traders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, old investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading at the moment, we at Insider Monkey look at the bigwigs of this club, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group has its hands on the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing stock picks, we have formulated a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year 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 beaten the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).

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Just as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are a number of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a look at the latest action surrounding Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII).

How are hedge funds trading Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII)?

At year’s end, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -25% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management had the most valuable position in Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII), worth close to $8.4 million, comprising 0.5% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson of Adage Capital Management, with a $3.2 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Nathan Fischel’s DAFNA Capital Management.

Judging by the fact that Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII) has witnessed a declination in interest from the smart money, we can see that there exists a select few funds that slashed their full holdings heading into 2013. Intriguingly, Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management said goodbye to the largest position of the 450+ funds we track, worth an estimated $0.7 million in stock.. J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s fund, Forward Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds heading into 2013.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII) has experienced 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII). These stocks are Cynosure, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYNO), MAKO Surgical Corp. (NASDAQ:MAKO), Symmetry Medical Inc. (NYSE:SMA), Invacare Corporation (NYSE:IVC), and Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIVN). This group of stocks are in the medical appliances & equipment industry and their market caps are closest to CSII’s market cap.

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