Hedge Funds Warming Up To Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (BCLI)

We at Insider Monkey have gone over 821 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, near the height of the coronavirus market crash. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BCLI) based on that data.

Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BCLI) has seen an increase in hedge fund interest lately. BCLI was in 4 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. There were 3 hedge funds in our database with BCLI holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that BCLI 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 87% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 51 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.

David Harding of Winton Capital Management

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, 2020’s unprecedented market conditions provide us with the highest number of trading opportunities in a decade. So we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. With all of this in mind let’s view the key hedge fund action regarding Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BCLI).

How are hedge funds trading Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BCLI)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 33% from the fourth quarter of 2019. By comparison, 3 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in BCLI a year ago. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies, holds the biggest position in Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BCLI). Renaissance Technologies has a $2.7 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Millennium Management, led by Israel Englander, holding a $0.9 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management and Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Winton Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BCLI), around 0.01% of its 13F portfolio. ExodusPoint Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.0027 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to BCLI.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, established the most outsized position in Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BCLI). Millennium Management had $0.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital also initiated a $0 million position during the quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BCLI). We will take a look at At Home Group Inc. (NYSE:HOME), Senseonics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SENS), Sharps Compliance Corp. (NASDAQ:SMED), and Exicure, Inc. (NASDAQ:XCUR). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to BCLI’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 9.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $21 million. That figure was $4 million in BCLI’s case. At Home Group Inc. (NYSE:HOME) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sharps Compliance Corp. (NASDAQ:SMED) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BCLI) is even less popular than SMED. Hedge funds clearly dropped the ball on BCLI as the stock delivered strong returns, though hedge funds’ consensus picks still generated respectable returns. 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 8.3% in 2020 through the end of May and still beat the market by 13.2 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on BCLI as the stock returned 60.6% so far in the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

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