Before we spend many hours researching a company, we’d like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. We would like to do so because the elite investors’ consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of Amarin Corporation plc (NASDAQ:AMRN).
Amarin Corporation plc (NASDAQ:AMRN) investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. Our calculations also showed that AMRN isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, old financial vehicles of years past. While there are over 8,000 funds trading at the moment, We choose to focus on the bigwigs of this group, approximately 700 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors oversee the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by monitoring their finest picks, Insider Monkey has uncovered many investment strategies that have historically outpaced Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 6 percentage points per year since its inception in May 2014 through early November 2018. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 24% since February 2017 (through December 3rd) even though the market was up nearly 23% during the same period. We just shared a list of 11 short targets in our latest quarterly update.
Let’s take a glance at the key hedge fund action surrounding Amarin Corporation plc (NASDAQ:AMRN).
What have hedge funds been doing with Amarin Corporation plc (NASDAQ:AMRN)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2018, a total of 22 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 47% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 17 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in AMRN heading into this year. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Baker Bros. Advisors, managed by Julian Baker and Felix Baker, holds the biggest position in Amarin Corporation plc (NASDAQ:AMRN). Baker Bros. Advisors has a $554.3 million position in the stock, comprising 3.7% of its 13F portfolio. On Baker Bros. Advisors’s heels is Consonance Capital Management, led by Mitchell Blutt, holding a $80.8 million position; the fund has 4.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism comprise Kris Jenner, Gordon Bussard, Graham McPhail’s Rock Springs Capital Management, Behzad Aghazadeh’s venBio Select Advisor and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. venBio Select Advisor, managed by Behzad Aghazadeh, established the most valuable position in Amarin Corporation plc (NASDAQ:AMRN). venBio Select Advisor had $65.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management also initiated a $42.4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new AMRN investors: David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital, and David Rosen’s Rubric Capital Management.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Amarin Corporation plc (NASDAQ:AMRN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Axis Capital Holdings Limited (NYSE:AXS), InterXion Holding NV (NYSE:INXN), MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE:MTG), and National Fuel Gas Company (NYSE:NFG). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to AMRN’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AXS | 21 | 597310 | -3 |
| INXN | 31 | 803781 | -4 |
| MTG | 30 | 430113 | 5 |
| NFG | 16 | 227303 | -1 |
| Average | 24.5 | 514627 | -0.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 24.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $515 million. That figure was $1.15 billion in AMRN’s case. InterXion Holding NV (NYSE:INXN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand National Fuel Gas Company (NYSE:NFG) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Amarin Corporation plc (NASDAQ:AMRN) 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. In this regard INXN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
