At the end of February we announced the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we predicted that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER).
Is Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER) ready to rally soon? Money managers are in a bullish mood. The number of bullish hedge fund positions inched up by 1 lately. Our calculations also showed that AKER 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.
In today’s marketplace there are a lot of signals market participants have at their disposal to grade publicly traded companies. Some of the most innovative signals are hedge fund and insider trading signals. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a solid margin (see the details here).
Sander Gerber of Hudson Bay Capital Management
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, legendary investor Bill Miller told investors to sell 7 extremely popular recession stocks last month. So, we went through his list and recommended another stock with 100% upside potential instead. 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 S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a look at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER).
What does smart money think about Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 50% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 0 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in AKER a year ago. So, let’s check out 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, Hudson Bay Capital Management, managed by Sander Gerber, holds the largest position in Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER). Hudson Bay Capital Management has a $0.5 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Sabby Capital, managed by Hal Mintz, which holds a $0.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Sabby Capital allocated the biggest weight to Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER), around 0.05% of its 13F portfolio. Hudson Bay Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.01 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to AKER.
As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Renaissance Technologies, assembled the biggest position in Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER). Renaissance Technologies had $0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Obalon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:OBLN), Energy Focus Inc (NASDAQ:EFOI), XpresSpa Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:XSPA), and ReWalk Robotics Ltd. (NASDAQ:RWLK). This group of stocks’ market caps match AKER’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| OBLN | 2 | 152 | 1 |
| EFOI | 3 | 102 | 2 |
| XSPA | 2 | 70 | 1 |
| RWLK | 3 | 293 | 2 |
| Average | 2.5 | 154 | 1.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 2.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $0 million. That figure was $1 million in AKER’s case. Energy Focus Inc (NASDAQ:EFOI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Obalon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:OBLN) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. 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 7.9% in 2020 through May 22nd but still beat the market by 15.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on AKER as the stock returned 50.4% in Q2 (through May 22nd) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
