A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on aTyr Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:LIFE).
aTyr Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:LIFE) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with LIFE holdings at the end of the second quarter, which rose to 6 by the end of the third quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as UniPixel Inc (NASDAQ:UNXL), Sito Mobile Ltd (NASDAQ:SITO), and Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE) to gather more data points.
Follow Life Technologies Corp (NASDAQ:LIFE)
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How have hedgies been trading aTyr Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:LIFE)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a 20% rise from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 9 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in LIFE heading into this year, so hedge fund ownership of the stock is still down by 33% in 2016. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group has the most valuable position in aTyr Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:LIFE), worth close to $3.3 million. The second most bullish fund manager is Rock Springs Capital Management, led by Kris Jenner, Gordon Bussard, and Graham McPhail, which holds a $1.4 million position. Remaining peers that hold long positions contain Kevin C. Tang’s Tang Capital Management, Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital, and Renaissance Technologies, one of the largest hedge funds in the world. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds, which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-micro-cap stocks.
As one would reasonably expect, some big names have jumped into aTyr Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:LIFE) headfirst. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies assembled the most outsized position in Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE). Renaissance Technologies had $0.2 million invested in the company at the end of the third quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to aTyr Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:LIFE). We will take a look at UniPixel Inc (NASDAQ:UNXL), Sito Mobile Ltd (NASDAQ:SITO), Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE), and Alliance HealthCare Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIQ). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble LIFE’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| UNXL | 4 | 722 | 0 |
| SITO | 5 | 2871 | 5 |
| GALE | 7 | 687 | 1 |
| AIQ | 4 | 5400 | 0 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2 million. That figure was $6 million in LIFE’s case. Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand UniPixel Inc (NASDAQ:UNXL) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. aTyr Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:LIFE) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard GALE might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
