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 866 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. In this article we look at what those investors think of Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO).
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) was in 44 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 54. BIO investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. There were 42 hedge funds in our database with BIO positions at the end of the fourth quarter. Our calculations also showed that BIO isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation, which is why we are checking out this inflation play. We go through lists like 10 best gold stocks to buy to identify promising stocks. 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. Now we’re going to take a gander at the key hedge fund action encompassing Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO).
Do Hedge Funds Think BIO Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At Q1’s end, a total of 44 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 5% from the fourth quarter of 2020. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in BIO over the last 23 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) was held by Millennium Management, which reported holding $111.6 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by Polar Capital with a $107.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Fisher Asset Management, AQR Capital Management, and Intermede Investment Partners. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Tower House Partners allocated the biggest weight to Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO), around 14.19% of its 13F portfolio. Endurant Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 2.2 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to BIO.
As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Renaissance Technologies, initiated the most outsized position in Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO). Renaissance Technologies had $29.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Vishal Saluja and Pham Quang’s Endurant Capital Management also made a $8.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager, and Jinghua Yan’s TwinBeech Capital.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE), Healthpeak Properties, Inc. (NYSE:PEAK), Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB), Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL), Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE:RJF), Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY), and Viatris Inc. (NASDAQ:VTRS). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to BIO’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CE | 36 | 759047 | 3 |
| PEAK | 18 | 264899 | -4 |
| ALB | 31 | 262992 | 10 |
| ROL | 30 | 643375 | 2 |
| RJF | 33 | 749300 | -1 |
| ALLY | 51 | 2804131 | -6 |
| VTRS | 58 | 1825444 | -9 |
| Average | 36.7 | 1044170 | -0.7 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 36.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1044 million. That figure was $891 million in BIO’s case. Viatris Inc. (NASDAQ:VTRS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Healthpeak Properties, Inc. (NYSE:PEAK) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for BIO is 63.9. 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 17.4% in 2021 through June 18th and still beat the market by 6.1 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on BIO, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 9% since Q1 (through June 18th) and outperformed the market as well.
Follow Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:BIO BIOB)
Follow Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:BIO BIOB)
Suggested Articles:
- How to Best Use Insider Monkey To Increase Your Returns
- 15 Biggest Watch Companies
- 25 Countries with the Most Debt Per Capita and Debt to GDP: 2020 Rankings
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
