Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Affimed NV (AFMD)

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 March 31st, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD).

Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund interest lately. Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD) was in 23 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic was previously 17. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that AFMD isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Hedge funds have more than $3.5 trillion in assets under management, so you can’t expect their entire portfolios to beat the market by large margins. Our research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). So you can still find a lot of gems by following hedge funds’ moves today.

Michael Castor of Sio Capital

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Chuck Schumer recently stated that marijuana legalization will be a Senate priority. So, we are checking out this under the radar stock that will benefit from this. We go through lists like the 10 best battery 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. Keeping this in mind let’s take a peek at the key hedge fund action regarding Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD).

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

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 35% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in AFMD over the last 23 quarters. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Consonance Capital Management held the most valuable stake in Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD), which was worth $47.5 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Point72 Asset Management which amassed $41.8 million worth of shares. 683 Capital Partners, Citadel Investment Group, and Millennium 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 Consonance Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD), around 5.07% of its 13F portfolio. Stonepine Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 4.4 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to AFMD.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have jumped into Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD) headfirst. Consonance Capital Management, managed by Mitchell Blutt, established the most outsized position in Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD). Consonance Capital Management had $47.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey’s Healthcor Management LP also initiated a $12.6 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new AFMD investors: Doron Breen and Mori Arkin’s Sphera Global Healthcare Fund, Michael Castor’s Sio Capital, and Farallon Capital.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD) but similarly valued. These stocks are Brigham Minerals, Inc. (NYSE:MNRL), Anterix Inc. (NASDAQ:ATEX), Chimerix Inc (NASDAQ:CMRX), Caleres Inc (NYSE:CAL), Trean Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TIG), AxoGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXGN), and CM Life Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:CMLF). This group of stocks’ market valuations match AFMD’s market valuation.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 16.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $158 million. That figure was $262 million in AFMD’s case. CM Life Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:CMLF) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Trean Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TIG) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for AFMD is 71.6. 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 23.8% in 2021 through July 16th and beat the market again by 7.7 percentage points. Unfortunately AFMD wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on AFMD were disappointed as the stock returned -17.4% since the end of March (through 7/16) 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.