Tracking the activity of hedge funds via their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission is particularly crucial, since these filings reveal the latest moves made by hedge funds and other prominent investors. In this way, recently Peter Kolchinksy’s RA Capital Management, disclosed ownership of almost 3.1 million shares of ChemoCentryx Inc (NASDAQ:CCXI). At the current price of company’s stock, the value of the RA Capital Management’s stake in ChemoCentryx Inc (NASDAQ:CCXI) is worth over $18.9 million. The purchase of the position in the company represents a new addition to the $754 million equity portfolio of Peter Kolchinksy’s fund.
In the eyes of many of your peers, hedge funds are perceived as bloated, outdated financial tools of a forgotten age. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds in operation currently, Insider Monkey looks at the aristocrats of this group, close to 525 funds. Analysts calculate that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their best stock picks, we’ve revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 (explore the details and some picks here).
Equally as useful, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to look at the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).
Thus, we’re going to analyze the latest info for ChemoCentryx Inc (NASDAQ:CCXI).
How have hedgies been trading ChemoCentryx Inc (NASDAQ:CCXI)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.
When using filings from the hedgies we track, Julian Baker and Felix Baker’s Baker Bros. Advisors had one of the biggest position in ChemoCentryx Inc (NASDAQ:CCXI), worth close to $5.3 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. It is followed by Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which held a $4.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Jeremy Green’s Redmile Group, Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital and Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management.
Judging by the fact that ChemoCentryx Inc (NASDAQ:CCXI) has experienced bearish sentiment from the smart money’s best and brightest, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedgies that decided to sell off their entire stakes in Q1. At the top of the heap, Jay Venkatesen’s Ayer Capital Management dropped the largest position of all the hedgies we watch, totaling close to $1.8 million in stock. Tom Russo’s fund, Gardner Russo & Gardner, also dropped its stock, about $0 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
How are insiders trading ChemoCentryx Inc (NASDAQ:CCXI)?
Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, ChemoCentryx Inc (NASDAQ:CCXI) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero 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 ChemoCentryx Inc (NASDAQ:CCXI). These stocks are Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ:SQNM), Emergent Biosolutions Inc (NYSE:EBS), Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc. (NYSEAMEX:PLX), Hyperion Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:HPTX), and Sangamo Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGMO). This group of stocks are in the biotechnology industry and their market caps are closest to CCXI’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ:SQNM) | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Emergent Biosolutions Inc (NYSE:EBS) | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc. (NYSEAMEX:PLX) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Hyperion Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:HPTX) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Sangamo Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGMO) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s strategies, average investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and ChemoCentryx Inc (NASDAQ:CCXI) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
