We at Insider Monkey have gone over 738 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. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) based on that data.
Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. LNTH was in 18 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. There were 17 hedge funds in our database with LNTH positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that LNTH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
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 has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 40 percentage points since May 2014 through May 30, 2019 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter.
Let’s view the latest hedge fund action encompassing Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH).
What does the smart money think about Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 18 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 6% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 16 hedge funds with a bullish position in LNTH a year ago. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $35.1 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by Tamarack Capital Management with a $23.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included AQR Capital Management, Raging Capital Management, and Royce & Associates.
As one would reasonably expect, some big names have been driving this bullishness. HBK Investments, managed by David Costen Haley, established the biggest position in Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH). HBK Investments had $0.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new LNTH position is Jeffrey Talpins’s Element Capital Management.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) but similarly valued. These stocks are Ra Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RARX), Coherus Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CHRS), CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CEIX), and Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE:DNR). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble LNTH’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RARX | 20 | 267787 | 3 |
| CHRS | 27 | 199168 | 7 |
| CEIX | 19 | 130215 | -6 |
| DNR | 17 | 43885 | -4 |
| Average | 20.75 | 160264 | 0 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 20.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $160 million. That figure was $100 million in LNTH’s case. Coherus Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CHRS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE:DNR) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 1.9% in Q2 through May 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 3 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on LNTH, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 1.6% during the same time frame and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
