Digimarc Corp (DMRC), Eleven Biotherapeutics Inc (EBIO): Rima Senvest Management and Sabby Management Are Bullish on These Micro-Caps

Digimarc Corp (NASDAQ:DMRC) and Eleven Biotherapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:EBIO) are two companies on which two funds have been bullish recently. Richard Mashaal’s RIMA Senvest Management has disclosed a new position, with 625,000 shares of Digimarc Corp (NASDAQ:DMRC), while Hal Mintz’s Sabby Management raised its exposure to Eleven Biotherapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:EBIO) and now holds 1.04 million shares. The funds’ stakes amass 7.5% and 5.8% of the companies’ common stocks, respectively.

RIMA Senvest Management is a New York-based hedge fund that focuses on value and growth stocks of small-cap and mid-cap companies, employing a contrarian stock picking approach. It last disclosed –by the end of the third quarter- an equity portfolio worth more than $1 billion, with a focus on information technology (38.1%), healthcare (21.3%) and finance (18.5%) stocks.

According to its 13G filing, the fund recently started a position in Digimarc Corp (NASDAQ:DMRC), a $215 million market cap company that provides media identification and management solutions to commercial entities and government customers. Also betting on Digimarc Corp (NASDAQ:DMRC) are Eric Semler’s TCS Capital Management and Amy Minella’s Cardinal Capital, which disclosed ownership of 67,246 shares and 28.800 shares, respectively as of the end of the third quarter.

Sabby Management is also based in New York, and predominantly invests in warrants of small cap healthcare companies, which comprise more than 87% of its total equity portfolio, worth more than $2.6 billion.

Eleven Biotherapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:EBIO) is a $187 million market cap clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a proprietary protein engineering platform, called AMP-Rx, that it applies to the discovery and development of protein therapeutics to treat eye diseases. Sabby had declared holding 19,997 shares of the company by the end of the third quarter; on Tuesday, it acknowledged owning 1.04 million shares. This implies that, since the end of the quarter, the fund acquired about 1.02 million shares. Also quite bullish on Eleven Biotherapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:EBIO) is Kevin Kotler’s Broadfin Capital, which owns 857,715 shares of the company.

Other companies that seem to inspire Hal Mintz’s confidence are Aastrom Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:ASTM), where he started a new stake in September; Lpath, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPTN), another new position; and Cytori Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CYTX), where he quadrupled his exposure.

Disclosure: None