Hedge Funds Are Buying AbCellera Biologics Inc. (ABCL)

After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 900 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of September 30th. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL).

AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL) has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL) was in 21 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 25. There were 18 hedge funds in our database with ABCL holdings at the end of June. Our calculations also showed that ABCL isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. With all of this in mind we’re going to go over the fresh hedge fund action encompassing AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL).

Charles Clough of Clough Capital Partners

Do Hedge Funds Think ABCL Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of September, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from the second quarter of 2021. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards ABCL over the last 25 quarters. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Baker Bros. Advisors, managed by Julian Baker and Felix Baker, holds the biggest position in AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL). Baker Bros. Advisors has a $209.4 million position in the stock, comprising 0.9% of its 13F portfolio. On Baker Bros. Advisors’s heels is SB Management, managed by Masayoshi Son, which holds a $196.7 million position; 20.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining members of the smart money that hold long positions encompass OrbiMed Advisors, Rick Slocum’s Harvard Management Co and Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position SB Management allocated the biggest weight to AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL), around 20.16% of its 13F portfolio. Harvard Management Co is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 4.82 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ABCL.

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers have jumped into AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL) headfirst. Duquesne Capital, managed by Stanley Druckenmiller, assembled the biggest position in AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL). Duquesne Capital had $13.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management also made a $5.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ABCL investors: Richard SchimeláandáLawrence Sapanski’s Cinctive Capital Management, Ryan Tolkin (CIO)’s Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL). We will take a look at Amplitude Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPL), Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK), Crane Co. (NYSE:CR), Blue Owl Capital Inc. (NYSE:OWL), KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR), Douglas Emmett, Inc. (NYSE:DEI), and Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to ABCL’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $494 million. That figure was $660 million in ABCL’s case. KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Douglas Emmett, Inc. (NYSE:DEI) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ABCL is 55.4. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 29.6% in 2021 and beat the market again by 3.6 percentage points. Unfortunately ABCL wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on ABCL were disappointed as the stock returned -28.6% since the end of September (through 12/31) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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