Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (CLDX)

In this article we are going to use hedge fund sentiment as a tool and determine whether Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX) is a good investment right now. We like to analyze hedge fund sentiment before conducting days of in-depth research. We do so because hedge funds and other elite investors have numerous Ivy League graduates, expert network advisers, and supply chain tipsters working or consulting for them. There is not a shortage of news stories covering failed hedge fund investments and it is a fact that hedge funds’ picks don’t beat the market 100% of the time, but their consensus picks have historically done very well and have outperformed the market after adjusting for risk.

Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX) was in 27 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic was previously 26. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. CLDX shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund interest lately. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with CLDX positions at the end of the second quarter. Our calculations also showed that CLDX isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 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. Now let’s view the latest hedge fund action surrounding Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX).

Peter Kolchinsky of RA Capital Management

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

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 27 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 23% from the second quarter of 2021. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in CLDX over the last 25 quarters. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Jeremy Green’s Redmile Group has the biggest position in Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX), worth close to $164.3 million, comprising 2.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Peter Kolchinsky of RA Capital Management, with a $86.4 million position; 1.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions contain James A. Silverman’s Opaleye Management, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Neil Shahrestani’s Ikarian Capital. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Octagon Capital Advisors allocated the biggest weight to Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX), around 10.12% of its 13F portfolio. Opaleye Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 9.91 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CLDX.

Consequently, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. RA Capital Management, managed by Peter Kolchinsky, assembled the biggest position in Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX). RA Capital Management had $86.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global also initiated a $41.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are OrbiMed Advisors, Doron Breen and Mori Arkin’s Sphera Global Healthcare Fund, and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX) but similarly valued. These stocks are Sanmina Corporation (NASDAQ:SANM), First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK), 2U Inc (NASDAQ:TWOU), Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR), Covetrus, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVET), Fulton Financial Corp (NASDAQ:FULT), and Privia Health Group Inc. (NASDAQ:PRVA). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble CLDX’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $141 million. That figure was $715 million in CLDX’s case. 2U Inc (NASDAQ:TWOU) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Privia Health Group Inc. (NASDAQ:PRVA) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX) is more popular among hedge funds. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for CLDX is 90. 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 31.1% in 2021 through December 9th and still beat the market by 5.1 percentage points. Unfortunately CLDX wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on CLDX were disappointed as the stock returned -31% since the end of the third quarter (through 12/9) 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 most of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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