Hedge Funds Are Buying OraSure Technologies, Inc. (OSUR)

Hedge fund managers like David Einhorn, Dan Loeb, or Carl Icahn became billionaires through reaping large profits for their investors, which is why piggybacking their stock picks may provide us with significant returns as well. Many hedge funds, like Paul Singer’s Elliott Management, are pretty secretive, but we can still get some insights by analyzing their quarterly 13F filings. One of the most fertile grounds for large abnormal returns is hedge funds’ most popular small-cap picks, which are not so widely followed and often trade at a discount to their intrinsic value. In this article we will check out hedge fund activity in another small-cap stock: OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR).

OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR) was in 25 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. OSUR has seen an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 21 hedge funds in our database with OSUR positions at the end of the previous 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 Innocoll AG (NASDAQ:INNL), Electro Rent Corporation (NASDAQ:ELRC), and HENNESS CAPITAL ACQUISITION CORP II (NASDAQ:HCAC) to gather more data points.

To most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, old investment vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, Our researchers choose to focus on the crème de la crème of this club, about 700 funds. These money managers manage most of the smart money’s total capital, and by tracking their matchless stock picks, Insider Monkey has formulated a number of investment strategies that have historically outrun the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points a year for a decade in their back tests.

Keeping this in mind, let’s analyze the latest action surrounding OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR).

What does the smart money think about OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR)?

At the Q3’s end, a total of 25 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 19% from the second quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Camber Capital Management, managed by Stephen DuBois, holds the largest position in OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR). Camber Capital Management has an $8.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.8% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Renaissance Technologies, led by Jim Simons, holding an $6.9 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other professional money managers that hold long positions comprise Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, initiated the most valuable position in OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR). Fisher Asset Management had $3.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Anders Hallberg and Carl Bennet’s HealthInvest Partners AB also initiated an $1.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new OSUR positions are Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital, Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital, and Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR). We will take a look at Innocoll AG (NASDAQ:INNL), Electro Rent Corporation (NASDAQ:ELRC), HENNESS CAPITAL ACQUISITION CORP II (NASDAQ:HCAC), and Easterly Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:EACQ). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to OSUR’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $51 million. That figure was $39 million in OSUR’s case. HENNESS CAPITAL ACQUISITION CORP II (NASDAQ:HCAC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Innocoll AG (NASDAQ:INNL) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.