Alger Remains Optimistic in Natera (NTRA) Despite Being Part of its Detractor List

Alger, an investment management firm, published its “Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. During the fourth quarter, the largest portfolio sector weightings were Information Technology and Health Care. The largest sector overweight was Financials. The portfolio had no exposure to the Consumer Staples or utility sectors and negligible exposure to Communication Services. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRA) and discussed its stance on the firm. Natera, Inc. is a San Carlos, California-based clinical genetic testing company with a $5.9 billion market capitalization. NTRA delivered a -32.28% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -36.89%. The stock closed at $63.24 per share on January 26, 2022.

Here is what Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund has to say about Natera, Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Natera discovers, develops and commercializes genetic testing services. It provides a suite of blood-based testing products in three primary verticals: reproductive health, oncology and transplant. The company is exposed to factors that have recently been out of favor in this market (eg: high growth, high multiple, long duration, cash burn). Natera posted solid third quarter results with revenues beating consensus expectations by $6 million. The company also raised revenue guidance by $10 million. Natera has beaten Wall Street expectations and raised guidance every quarter since the third quarter of 2020 when guidance was reinstated after COVID-19 started. Gross margins came in below publicly available Wall Street estimates but were still up year-over-year and quarter over quarter with the trajectory for continued expansion in-tact. While the beat was slightly smaller than the past two quarters, this was still a strong report and we believe it shows evidence of continued business momentum.”

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Our calculations show that Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:  NTRA) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. NTRA was in 50 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 52 funds in the previous quarter. Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:  NTRA) delivered a -44.52% return in the past 3 months.

In November 2021, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on NTRA in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.