We are still in an overall bull market and many stocks that smart money investors were piling into surged through the end of November. Among them, Facebook and Microsoft ranked among the top 3 picks and these stocks gained 54% and 51% respectively. Hedge funds’ top 3 stock picks returned 41.7% this year and beat the S&P 500 ETFs by 14 percentage points. Investing in index funds guarantees you average returns, not superior returns. We are looking to generate superior returns for our readers. That’s why we believe it isn’t a waste of time to check out hedge fund sentiment before you invest in a stock like Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX).
Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX) 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 NYMX to other stocks including ConforMIS, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFMS), Trinity Place Holdings Inc. (NYSE:TPHS), and Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI) 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 21st century investor’s toolkit there are tons of indicators market participants have at their disposal to appraise their stock investments. A duo of the most under-the-radar indicators are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can trounce the market by a solid amount (see the details here).
Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group
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. Keeping this in mind we’re going to check out the new hedge fund action encompassing Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX).
What does smart money think about Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 1 hedge funds with a bullish position in NYMX a year ago. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management has the largest position in Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX), worth close to $0.8 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold of LMR Partners, with a $0.1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Renaissance Technologies, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position LMR Partners allocated the biggest weight to Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX), around 0.0032% of its 13F portfolio. Millennium Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.0013 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to NYMX.
We view hedge fund activity in the stock unfavorable, but in this case there was only a single hedge fund selling its entire position: Weiss Asset Management. 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 Citadel Investment Group).
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX). These stocks are ConforMIS, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFMS), Trinity Place Holdings Inc. (NYSE:TPHS), Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI), and Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to NYMX’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CFMS | 8 | 25765 | 1 |
| TPHS | 12 | 60747 | 2 |
| PERI | 3 | 9261 | 2 |
| FTK | 10 | 17580 | 0 |
| Average | 8.25 | 28338 | 1.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 8.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $28 million. That figure was $1 million in NYMX’s case. Trinity Place Holdings Inc. (NYSE:TPHS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. 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 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 NYMX wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); NYMX investors were disappointed as the stock returned 2.2% during the first two months of the fourth quarter 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 70 percent of these stocks already outperformed the market in Q4.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
