Hedge Funds Are Piling Into BioNTech SE (BNTX)

Out of thousands of stocks that are currently traded on the market, it is difficult to identify those that will really generate strong returns. Hedge funds and institutional investors spend millions of dollars on analysts with MBAs and PhDs, who are industry experts and well connected to other industry and media insiders on top of that. Individual investors can piggyback the hedge funds employing these talents and can benefit from their vast resources and knowledge in that way. We analyze quarterly 13F filings of nearly 900 hedge funds and, by looking at the smart money sentiment that surrounds a stock, we can determine whether it has the potential to beat the market over the long-term. Therefore, let’s take a closer look at what smart money thinks about BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX).

Is BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) a buy here? The best stock pickers were taking a bullish view. The number of bullish hedge fund positions moved up by 8 recently. BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) was in 28 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic was previously 20. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that BNTX 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. With all of this in mind we’re going to go over the new hedge fund action encompassing BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX).

Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management

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

At the end of September, a total of 28 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 40% from the second quarter of 2021. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in BNTX over the last 25 quarters. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Citadel Investment Group held the most valuable stake in BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX), which was worth $359.3 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Coatue Management which amassed $282.3 million worth of shares. Millennium Management, Citadel Investment Group, and D E Shaw were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Darwin Global Management allocated the biggest weight to BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX), around 6.68% of its 13F portfolio. Shanda Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 1.84 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to BNTX.

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Darwin Global Management, managed by Abhishek Trehan, assembled the most valuable position in BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX). Darwin Global Management had $36.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also initiated a $12.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BNTX positions are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey’s Healthcor Management LP, and Morris Mark’s Mark Asset Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO), The Southern Company (NYSE:SO), ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN), Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN), Intercontinental Exchange Inc (NYSE:ICE), and Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to BNTX’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 37 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3387 million. That figure was $689 million in BNTX’s case. Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for BNTX is 57.4. 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. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. 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 surpassed the market again by 5.1 percentage points. Unfortunately BNTX wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); BNTX investors were disappointed as the stock returned 4.1% since the end of September (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 in 2021.

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