Hedge Funds Watching Transenterix Inc (TRXC) From Afar

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 821 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. What do these smart investors think about Transenterix Inc (NYSE:TRXC)?

Hedge fund interest in Transenterix Inc (NYSE:TRXC) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. At the end of this article we will also compare TRXC to other stocks including iMedia Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMBI), CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV), and AzurRx BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZRX) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 51 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 36% through May 18th. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

John Overdeck of Two Sigma Advisors

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 take a look at the recent hedge fund action surrounding Transenterix Inc (NYSE:TRXC).

How have hedgies been trading Transenterix Inc (NYSE:TRXC)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 5 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 13 hedge funds with a bullish position in TRXC a year ago. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Hal Mintz’s Sabby Capital has the largest position in Transenterix Inc (NYSE:TRXC), worth close to $0.6 million, amounting to 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Masters Capital Management, led by Mike Masters, holding a $0.4 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other members of the smart money that hold long positions comprise Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Sabby Capital allocated the biggest weight to Transenterix Inc (NYSE:TRXC), around 0.26% of its 13F portfolio. Masters Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.04 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to TRXC.

Due to the fact that Transenterix Inc (NYSE:TRXC) has witnessed declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies that decided to sell off their entire stakes last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Renaissance Technologies said goodbye to the largest position of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling about $0.1 million in stock. Daniel S. Och’s fund, OZ Management, also dumped its stock, about $0 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Transenterix Inc (NYSE:TRXC) but similarly valued. We will take a look at iMedia Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMBI), CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV), AzurRx BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZRX), and ThermoGenesis Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:THMO). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to TRXC’s market cap.

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 TRXC’s case. CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand ThermoGenesis Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:THMO) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Transenterix Inc (NYSE:TRXC) is more popular among hedge funds. 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 but still managed to beat the market by 13.2 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on TRXC, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 20% in Q2 (through the end of May) and outperformed the market as well.

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