After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 750 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of September 30th. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Medigus Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDGS).
Medigus Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDGS) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the third quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 4 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. At the end of this article we will also compare MDGS to other stocks including Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS), Reebonz Holding Limited (NASDAQ:RBZ), and Blonder Tongue Labs, Inc. (NYSE:BDR) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In the eyes of most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be worthless, old financial tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open today, We choose to focus on the crème de la crème of this club, about 750 funds. These investment experts have their hands on the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by shadowing their inimitable picks, Insider Monkey has determined a few investment strategies that have historically defeated the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per year since its inception in May 2014. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.8% since February 2017 (through November 21st) even though the market was up more than 39% during the same period. We just shared a list of 7 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Discover is offering this insane cashback card, so we look into shorting the stock. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We even check out this option genius’ weekly trade ideas. This December, we recommended Adams Energy as a one-way bet based on an under-the-radar fund manager’s investor letter and the stock already gained 20 percent. Now we’re going to view the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Medigus Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDGS).
How are hedge funds trading Medigus Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDGS)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2019, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 0% from the second quarter of 2019. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards MDGS over the last 17 quarters. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Steven Boyd’s Armistice Capital has the most valuable position in Medigus Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDGS), worth close to $0.8 million, amounting to 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Sabby Capital, led by Hal Mintz, holding a $0.1 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other professional money managers that are bullish consist of Renaissance Technologies, Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Sabby Capital allocated the biggest weight to Medigus Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDGS), around 0.05% of its 13F portfolio. Armistice Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.05 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MDGS.
We view hedge fund activity in the stock unfavorable, but in this case there was only a single hedge fund selling its entire position: Armistice Capital. One hedge fund selling its entire position doesn’t always imply a bearish intent. Theoretically a hedge fund may decide to sell a promising position in order to invest the proceeds in a more promising idea. However, we don’t think this is the case in this case because only one of the 800+ hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey identified as a viable investment and initiated a position in the stock (that fund was Armistice Capital).
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Medigus Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDGS) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS), Reebonz Holding Limited (NASDAQ:RBZ), Blonder Tongue Labs, Inc. (NYSE:BDR), and TSR, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSRI). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to MDGS’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADXS | 6 | 1082 | 2 |
| RBZ | 1 | 13 | 0 |
| BDR | 1 | 47 | -1 |
| TSRI | 1 | 240 | 0 |
| Average | 2.25 | 346 | 0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 2.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $0 million. That figure was $1 million in MDGS’s case. Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Reebonz Holding Limited (NASDAQ:RBZ) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Medigus Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDGS) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. 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 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. Unfortunately MDGS wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on MDGS were disappointed as the stock returned 4.7% during the fourth quarter (through the end of November) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
