Does Qiagen NV (NYSE:QGEN) represent a good buying opportunity at the moment? Let’s briefly check the hedge fund interest towards the company. Hedge fund firms constantly search out bright intellectuals and highly-experienced employees and throw away millions of dollars on research activities, so it is no wonder why they tend to generate millions in profits each year. It is also true that some hedge fund players fail unconceivably on some occasions, but their stock picks have been generating superior risk-adjusted returns on average over the years.
Qiagen NV (NYSE:QGEN) has seen an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. QGEN was in 24 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with QGEN holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that QGEN isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, outdated investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8,000 funds trading at the moment, We look at the bigwigs of this group, about 700 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people control the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by paying attention to their unrivaled picks, Insider Monkey has deciphered many investment strategies that have historically defeated the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 6 percentage points per annum since its inception in May 2014 through early November 2018. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 24% since February 2017 (through December 3rd) even though the market was up nearly 23% during the same period. We just shared a list of 11 short targets in our latest quarterly update.
Let’s take a glance at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Qiagen NV (NYSE:QGEN).
What does the smart money think about Qiagen NV (NYSE:QGEN)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 9% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 18 hedge funds with a bullish position in QGEN at the beginning of this year. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, AQR Capital Management was the largest shareholder of Qiagen NV (NYSE:QGEN), with a stake worth $86.6 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing AQR Capital Management was Citadel Investment Group, which amassed a stake valued at $73.8 million. D E Shaw, Arrowstreet Capital, and Sandler Capital Management were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.
Consequently, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Gotham Asset Management, managed by Joel Greenblatt, initiated the most outsized position in Qiagen NV (NYSE:QGEN). Gotham Asset Management had $10.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also made a $1.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital, David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments, and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Qiagen NV (NYSE:QGEN). We will take a look at Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS), Formula One Group (NASDAQ:FWONK), FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS), and Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. (NYSE:HLF). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble QGEN’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELS | 14 | 528054 | 0 |
| FWONK | 39 | 2195969 | 0 |
| FDS | 17 | 208884 | -1 |
| HLF | 38 | 3764011 | 8 |
| Average | 27 | 1674230 | 1.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 27 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.67 billion. That figure was $415 million in QGEN’s case. Formula One Group (NASDAQ:FWONK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Qiagen NV (NYSE:QGEN) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard FWONK might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.