Hedge Funds Have Never Been This Bullish On Misonix, Inc. (MSON)

Before we spend countless hours researching a company, we like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. This is a necessary first step in our investment process because our research has shown that the elite investors’ consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of Misonix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSON).

Misonix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSON) investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. Our calculations also showed that MSON 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.

In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s monthly stock picks returned 101% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 58 percentage points. Our short strategy outperformed the S&P 500 short ETFs by 20 percentage points annually (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Justin John Ferayorni of Tamarack Capital Management

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, We take a look at lists like the 10 most profitable companies in the world to identify the compounders that are likely to deliver double digit returns. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. For example we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 in February after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind we’re going to view the latest hedge fund action encompassing Misonix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSON).

What have hedge funds been doing with Misonix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSON)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 125% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in MSON over the last 18 quarters. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital has the biggest position in Misonix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSON), worth close to $4 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Polar Capital’s heels is Alexis Michas and John Bartholdson of Juniper Investment Company, with a $3.7 million position; 5.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism include Efrem Kamen’s Pura Vida Investments, Guy Levy’s Soleus Capital and Justin John Ferayorni’s Tamarack Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Juniper Investment Company allocated the biggest weight to Misonix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSON), around 5.76% of its 13F portfolio. Soleus Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 2.61 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MSON.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Polar Capital, managed by Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley, assembled the most valuable position in Misonix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSON). Polar Capital had $4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Efrem Kamen’s Pura Vida Investments also initiated a $3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new MSON investors: Justin John Ferayorni’s Tamarack Capital Management, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Misonix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSON) but similarly valued. These stocks are Aspen Aerogels Inc (NYSE:ASPN), MediciNova, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNOV), Menlo Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:MNLO), and Ovid Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:OVID). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to MSON’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $23 million. That figure was $18 million in MSON’s case. Menlo Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:MNLO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand MediciNova, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNOV) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Misonix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSON) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. 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 13.4% in 2020 through June 22nd and still beat the market by 15.9 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on MSON as the stock returned 41% during the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.