Hedge Funds Are Nibbling On Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. (RLMD)

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. Insider Monkey finished processing 821 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RLMD).

Is Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RLMD) a good investment today? Prominent investors are getting more optimistic. The number of long hedge fund bets increased by 1 lately. Our calculations also showed that RLMD 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). RLMD was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with RLMD positions at the end of the previous quarter.

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

In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s monthly stock picks returned 101% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 58 percentage points. Our short strategy outperformed the S&P 500 short ETFs by 20 percentage points annually (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Kevin Kotler of Broadfin Capital

We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. 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. Keeping this in mind let’s take a gander at the recent hedge fund action encompassing Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RLMD).

Hedge fund activity in Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RLMD)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 13% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in RLMD over the last 18 quarters. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

The largest stake in Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RLMD) was held by RA Capital Management, which reported holding $47.1 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Tang Capital Management with a $44.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Avoro Capital Advisors (venBio Select Advisor), Citadel Investment Group, and Acuta Capital Partners. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Tang Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RLMD), around 6.23% of its 13F portfolio. Acuta Capital Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 1.5 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to RLMD.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Avoro Capital Advisors (venBio Select Advisor), managed by Behzad Aghazadeh, created the most outsized position in Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RLMD). Avoro Capital Advisors (venBio Select Advisor) had $39.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Manfred Yu’s Acuta Capital Partners also made a $3.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new RLMD positions are Neil Shahrestani’s Ikarian Capital and Guy Levy’s Soleus Capital.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RLMD) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Tredegar Corporation (NYSE:TG), Westlake Chemical Partners LP (NYSE:WLKP), SpartanNash Company (NASDAQ:SPTN), and ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ:ZIOP). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to RLMD’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $49 million. That figure was $149 million in RLMD’s case. SpartanNash Company (NASDAQ:SPTN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Westlake Chemical Partners LP (NYSE:WLKP) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RLMD) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below 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 13.4% in 2020 through June 22nd and still beat the market by 15.9 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on RLMD as the stock returned 41.3% during the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

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