The 700+ hedge funds and money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the fourth quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of December 31. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund positions. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards BioScrip Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOS).
Is BioScrip Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOS) a safe stock to buy now? Hedge funds are getting more bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions improved by 3 lately. Our calculations also showed that BIOS isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
According to most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading at the moment, We choose to focus on the top tier of this group, around 750 funds. These investment experts shepherd most of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their finest stock picks, Insider Monkey has identified a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by nearly 5 percentage points a 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 27.5% since February 2017 (through March 12th) even though the market was up nearly 25% during the same period. We just shared a list of 6 short targets in our latest quarterly update and they are already down an average of 6% in less than a month.
We’re going to take a look at the new hedge fund action surrounding BioScrip Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOS).
What have hedge funds been doing with BioScrip Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOS)?
Heading into the first quarter of 2019, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in BIOS over the last 14 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Venor Capital Management held the most valuable stake in BioScrip Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOS), which was worth $45.9 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was D E Shaw which amassed $13.5 million worth of shares. Moreover, Diamond Hill Capital, Royce & Associates, and Millennium Management were also bullish on BioScrip Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOS), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Point72 Asset Management, managed by Steve Cohen, initiated the most outsized position in BioScrip Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOS). Point72 Asset Management had $3.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $2.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP, and Thomas E. Claugus’s GMT Capital.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to BioScrip Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOS). We will take a look at NanoString Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:NSTG), Secoo Holding Limited (NASDAQ:SECO), Quanex Building Products Corporation (NYSE:NX), and Vivint Solar Inc (NYSE:VSLR). This group of stocks’ market values resemble BIOS’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSTG | 15 | 93473 | -1 |
| SECO | 2 | 10897 | -3 |
| NX | 16 | 42740 | 2 |
| VSLR | 16 | 23369 | 6 |
| Average | 12.25 | 42620 | 1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 12.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $43 million. That figure was $112 million in BIOS’s case. Quanex Building Products Corporation (NYSE:NX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Secoo Holding Limited (NASDAQ:SECO) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks BioScrip Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOS) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. Unfortunately BIOS wasn’t nearly as popular as these 15 stock and hedge funds that were betting on BIOS were disappointed as the stock returned -54.9% and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
