Hedge Funds and other institutional investors have just completed filing their 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing their equity portfolios as of the end of March. At Insider Monkey, we follow nearly 750 active hedge funds and notable investors and by analyzing their 13F filings, we can determine the stocks that they are collectively bullish on. One of their picks is MeiraGTx Holdings plc (NASDAQ:MGTX), so let’s take a closer look at the sentiment that surrounds it in the current quarter.
MeiraGTx Holdings plc (NASDAQ:MGTX) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. MGTX has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with MGTX holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that mgtx isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
To most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, old investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation today, Our researchers choose to focus on the upper echelon of this group, about 750 funds. These money managers orchestrate most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by shadowing their best investments, Insider Monkey has identified numerous investment strategies that have historically beaten the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 index by around 5 percentage points annually since its inception in May 2014 through June 18th. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 28.2% since February 2017 (through June 18th) even though the market was up nearly 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 5 short targets in our latest quarterly update and they are already down an average of 8.2% in a month whereas our long picks outperformed the market by 2.5 percentage points in this volatile 5 week period (our long picks also beat the market by 15 percentage points so far this year).
We’re going to take a gander at the latest hedge fund action regarding MeiraGTx Holdings plc (NASDAQ:MGTX).
What does smart money think about MeiraGTx Holdings plc (NASDAQ:MGTX)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 57% from the fourth quarter of 2018. By comparison, 0 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in MGTX a year ago. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in MeiraGTx Holdings plc (NASDAQ:MGTX) was held by Perceptive Advisors, which reported holding $103.5 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by OrbiMed Advisors with a $42.4 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included 683 Capital Partners, Sectoral Asset Management, and Deerfield Management.
Consequently, specific money managers have jumped into MeiraGTx Holdings plc (NASDAQ:MGTX) headfirst. Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, assembled the most valuable position in MeiraGTx Holdings plc (NASDAQ:MGTX). Adage Capital Management had $3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Lawrence Hawkins’s Prosight Capital also initiated a $1.6 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to MeiraGTx Holdings plc (NASDAQ:MGTX). These stocks are First Defiance Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:FDEF), Luther Burbank Corporation (NASDAQ:LBC), SpartanNash Company (NASDAQ:SPTN), and Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (OTC:FMCB). This group of stocks’ market valuations match MGTX’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDEF | 9 | 33709 | 2 |
| LBC | 6 | 17751 | 0 |
| SPTN | 16 | 43307 | 0 |
| FMCB | 2 | 755 | 1 |
| Average | 8.25 | 23881 | 0.75 |
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 $24 million. That figure was $170 million in MGTX’s case. SpartanNash Company (NASDAQ:SPTN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (OTC:FMCB) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. MeiraGTx Holdings plc (NASDAQ:MGTX) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 6.2% in Q2 through June 19th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 3 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on MGTX as the stock returned 23.5% during the same period and outperformed the market by an even larger margin. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.