Investing in hedge funds can bring large profits, but it’s not for everybody, since hedge funds are available only to high-net-worth individuals. They generate significant returns for investors to justify their large fees and they allocate a lot of time and employ complex analysis to determine the best stocks to invest in. A particularly interesting group of stocks that hedge funds like is small-caps. The huge amount of capital does not allow hedge funds to invest a lot in small-caps, but our research showed that their most popular small-cap ideas are less efficiently priced and generate stronger returns than their large- and mega-cap picks and the broader market. That is why we follow the hedge fund activity in the small-cap space.
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Is Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) a buy, sell, or hold? Money managers are becoming less hopeful. The number of long hedge fund positions retreated by four recently. Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 15 hedge funds in our database with Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article, we will also compare Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) to other stocks including Invivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:NVIV), Vectrus Inc (NYSE:VEC), and eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:EHTH) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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To the average investor there are several formulas shareholders can use to grade their holdings. Some of the most underrated formulas are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. Experts at Insider Monkey, a website specializing in hedge funds, have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can beat the broader indices by a healthy margin (see the details here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the key action regarding Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM).
Hedge fund activity in Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM)
At Q3’s end, a total of 11 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long in this stock, a drop of 27% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.
According to publicly available hedge fund holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors has the most valuable position in Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM), worth close to $19.9 million, comprising 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On OrbiMed Advisors’s heels is Scopia Capital, managed by Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich, which holds a $10.6 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining members of the smart money with similar optimism contain Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Hal Mintz’s Sabby Capital, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Seeing as Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) has experienced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there were a few hedgies that decided to sell off their positions entirely last quarter. Intriguingly, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management said goodbye to the biggest stake of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $4.8 million in stock, and Andrew Sandler of Sandler Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $3.1 million worth of shares. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by four funds last quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM). These stocks are Invivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:NVIV), Vectrus Inc (NYSE:VEC), eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:EHTH), and OvaScience Inc (NASDAQ:OVAS). This group of stocks’ market valuations match Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM)’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIV | 4 | 2559 | 2 |
| VEC | 10 | 11211 | -2 |
| EHTH | 15 | 87458 | 3 |
| OVAS | 13 | 46912 | -1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 10.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $37 million. Investments in FLDM were much higher, with money managers that we track owning $56 million worth of its shares. eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:EHTH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Invivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:NVIV) is the least popular one with only four bullish hedge fund positions. Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but because of the declining interest, we’d rather find a stock with better momentum. In this regard eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:EHTH) might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.
