Hedge Funds Are Getting Bullish On LivaNova PLC (LIVN)

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 821 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 March 31st, a week after the market trough. In this article we look at what those investors think of LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN).

LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN) has experienced an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. LIVN was in 24 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with LIVN holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that LIVN isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, old financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, We choose to focus on the masters of this club, about 850 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people direct the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by watching their best picks, Insider Monkey has identified a few investment strategies that have historically exceeded Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outrun the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .

We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, we believe electric vehicles and energy storage are set to become giant markets, and we want to take advantage of the declining lithium prices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. So we are checking out investment opportunities like these. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. With all of this in mind we’re going to check out the fresh hedge fund action regarding LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN).

How have hedgies been trading LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN)?

Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 9% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 20 hedge funds with a bullish position in LIVN a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Healthcor Management LP, managed by Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey, holds the largest position in LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN). Healthcor Management LP has a $55.5 million position in the stock, comprising 2.4% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Citadel Investment Group, led by Ken Griffin, holding a $38.5 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining professional money managers that are bullish encompass David Paradice’s Paradice Investment Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Paradice Investment Management allocated the biggest weight to LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN), around 4.25% of its 13F portfolio. Healthcor Management LP is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 2.37 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to LIVN.

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Healthcor Management LP, managed by Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey, established the biggest position in LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN). Healthcor Management LP had $55.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management also made a $17 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Henrik Rhenman’s Rhenman & Partners Asset Management, Fang Zheng’s Keywise Capital Management, and Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN). We will take a look at GATX Corporation (NYSE:GATX), Franklin Electric Co. (NASDAQ:FELE), Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (NASDAQ:SFM), and Axsome Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXSM). This group of stocks’ market valuations match LIVN’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $279 million. That figure was $236 million in LIVN’s case. Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (NASDAQ:SFM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand GATX Corporation (NYSE:GATX) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. 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 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 13.9% in 2020 through June 10th but beat the market by 14.2 percentage points. Unfortunately LIVN wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on LIVN were disappointed as the stock returned 17.5% during the same time period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far this year.

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