Hedge Funds Are Buying Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (KERX)

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX) investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months.

In today’s marketplace, there are many gauges investors can use to track publicly traded companies. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the world of equities. Obviously, there are a number of motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action surrounding Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX).

What have hedge funds been doing with Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 183% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management had the biggest position in Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX), worth close to $54.1 million, accounting for 3.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is RA Capital Management, managed by Peter Kolchinsky, which held a $32.7 million position; 7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Daniel Gold’s QVT Financial.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Deerfield Management, managed by James E. Flynn, assembled the largest position in Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX). Deerfield Management had 54.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Kolchinsky’s RA Capital Management also initiated a $32.7 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new KERX investors: Peter Kolchinsky’s RA Capital Management, Daniel Gold’s QVT Financial, and Jeffrey Vinik’s Vinik Asset Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX). These stocks are Astex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTX), Kythera Biopharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:KYTH), Endocyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECYT), Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ICPT), and Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL). All of these stocks are in the drug manufacturers – major industry and their market caps are similar to KERX’s market cap.