Hedge Funds Are Piling Into Seagen Inc. (SGEN)

Last year we predicted the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we told in advance 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 Seagen Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN).

Is Seagen Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN) a buy, sell, or hold? Hedge funds were turning bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions inched up by 3 recently. Seagen Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN) was in 40 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic was previously 39. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that SGEN 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. Now let’s take a look at the recent hedge fund action surrounding Seagen Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN).

Felix Baker of Baker Bros.

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

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 40 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 8% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 28 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in SGEN a year ago. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Baker Bros. Advisors held the most valuable stake in Seagen Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN), which was worth $8029.5 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Citadel Investment Group which amassed $210 million worth of shares. Marshall Wace LLP, Point72 Asset Management, and Redmile Group 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 Baker Bros. Advisors allocated the biggest weight to Seagen Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN), around 35.26% of its 13F portfolio. Tri Locum Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 6.5 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to SGEN.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Antipodes Partners, managed by Jacob Mitchell, created the most outsized position in Seagen Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN). Antipodes Partners had $52.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. OrbiMed Advisors also made a $45.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new SGEN positions are Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital, Prashanth Jayaram’s Tri Locum Partners, and Bhagwan Jay Rao’s Integral Health Asset Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Seagen Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX), McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK), Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (NYSE:PEG), Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE:SU), Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG), American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK), and Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK). All of these stocks’ market caps match SGEN’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 33.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1449 million. That figure was $9471 million in SGEN’s case. McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) is the least popular one with only 22 bullish hedge fund positions. Seagen Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for SGEN is 69. 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 positive signal but 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 28.6% in 2021 through November 30th and beat the market again by 5.6 percentage points. Unfortunately SGEN wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on SGEN were disappointed as the stock returned -5.8% since the end of September (through 11/30) 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 many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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