The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 873 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of June 30th. In this article we look at what those investors think of Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH).
Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) was in 25 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 30. Our calculations also showed that TECH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 79 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Ian Wace of Marshall Wace
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium mining is one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging lithium stock. 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. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. With all of this in mind we’re going to go over the recent hedge fund action surrounding Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH).
Do Hedge Funds Think TECH Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At Q2’s end, a total of 25 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 9% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in TECH over the last 24 quarters. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Royce & Associates was the largest shareholder of Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH), with a stake worth $57.3 million reported as of the end of June. Trailing Royce & Associates was Montanaro Asset Management, which amassed a stake valued at $36.4 million. Marshall Wace LLP, Sandler Capital Management, and AQR Capital Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Montanaro Asset Management allocated the biggest weight to Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH), around 4.58% of its 13F portfolio. Sandler Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 2.54 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to TECH.
Now, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, assembled the biggest position in Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH). Arrowstreet Capital had $2.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Karim Abbadi and Edward McBride’s Centiva Capital also made a $1.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp, Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager, and Mika Toikka’s AlphaCrest Capital Management.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH). We will take a look at Pembina Pipeline Corp (NYSE:PBA), Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG), Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE:AVY), Tata Motors Limited (NYSE:TTM), Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE:J), The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES), and ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX). This group of stocks’ market values match TECH’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PBA | 15 | 116382 | 0 |
| CAG | 29 | 576252 | -1 |
| AVY | 34 | 872205 | 14 |
| TTM | 8 | 69120 | 0 |
| J | 29 | 1030453 | 5 |
| AES | 39 | 1422533 | -12 |
| ASX | 7 | 241132 | -1 |
| Average | 23 | 618297 | 0.7 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 23 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $618 million. That figure was $242 million in TECH’s case. The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for TECH is 60.1. 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. 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 24% in 2021 through October 22nd and still beat the market by 1.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on TECH as the stock returned 12.3% since the end of Q2 (through 10/22) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
