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. We have processed the filings of the more than 700 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their December 31 holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ:QTRX) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.
Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ:QTRX) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the third quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. At the end of this article we will also compare QTRX to other stocks including DBV Technologies SA – ADR (NASDAQ:DBVT), City Office REIT Inc (NYSE:CIO), and William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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 32 percentage points since May 2014 through March 12, 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.
We’re going to take a peek at the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ:QTRX).
How are hedge funds trading Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ:QTRX)?
Heading into the first quarter of 2019, a total of 7 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in QTRX over the last 14 quarters. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Royce & Associates held the most valuable stake in Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ:QTRX), which was worth $13.3 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Diag Capital which amassed $4.1 million worth of shares. Moreover, Park West Asset Management, Platinum Asset Management, and Point72 Asset Management were also bullish on Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ:QTRX), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
We view hedge fund activity in the stock unfavorable, but in this case there was only a single hedge fund selling its entire position: Portolan Capital Management. One hedge fund selling its entire position doesn’t always imply a bearish intent. Theoretically a hedge fund may decide to sell a promising position in order to invest the proceeds in a more promising idea. However, we don’t think this is the case in this case because only one of the 800+ hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey identified as a viable investment and initiated a position in the stock (that fund was Diag Capital).
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ:QTRX). We will take a look at DBV Technologies SA – ADR (NASDAQ:DBVT), City Office REIT Inc (NYSE:CIO), William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH), and Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AHT). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to QTRX’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| DBVT | 5 | 42725 | -4 |
| CIO | 6 | 20006 | 0 |
| WLH | 20 | 108929 | 6 |
| AHT | 15 | 33618 | 3 |
| Average | 11.5 | 51320 | 1.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $51 million. That figure was $31 million in QTRX’s case. William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand DBV Technologies SA – ADR (NASDAQ:DBVT) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ:QTRX) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. 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. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on QTRX, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 19.7% and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.