Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the first quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves over the last 4.5 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CKPT) based on that data.
Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CKPT) was in 3 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. CKPT has seen an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 2 hedge funds in our database with CKPT holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that CKPT 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.
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 44 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 36% through May 18th. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
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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. You can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here and find out the name of the large-cap healthcare stock that Sio Capital’s Michael Castor expects to double. 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. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a look at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CKPT).
How have hedgies been trading Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CKPT)?
At the end of the first quarter, 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. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in CKPT 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 Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CKPT) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $0.1 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Millennium Management with a $0.1 million position. The only other hedge fund that is bullish on the company was ExodusPoint Capital.
Now, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. ExodusPoint Capital, managed by Michael Gelband, created the largest position in Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CKPT). ExodusPoint Capital had $0 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CKPT). We will take a look at Atento SA (NYSE:ATTO), Vermillion, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRML), Moneygram International Inc (NASDAQ:MGI), and Old Point Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:OPOF). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to CKPT’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATTO | 6 | 509 | 0 |
| VRML | 4 | 2826 | 0 |
| MGI | 8 | 3009 | -6 |
| OPOF | 3 | 4530 | -1 |
| Average | 5.25 | 2719 | -1.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 5.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3 million. That figure was $0 million in CKPT’s case. Moneygram International Inc (NASDAQ:MGI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Old Point Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:OPOF) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CKPT) is even less popular than OPOF. Hedge funds clearly dropped the ball on CKPT as the stock delivered strong returns, though hedge funds’ consensus picks still generated respectable returns. 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 and still beat the market by 15.6 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on CKPT as the stock returned 50.3% so far in the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
