Hedge funds are not perfect. They have their bad picks just like everyone else. Facebook, a stock hedge funds have loved dearly, lost nearly 40% of its value at one point in 2018. Although hedge funds are not perfect, their consensus picks do deliver solid returns, however. Our data show the top 20 S&P 500 stocks among hedge funds beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 6 percentage points so far in 2019. Because hedge funds have a lot of resources and their consensus picks do well, we pay attention to what they think. In this article, we analyze what the elite funds think of Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SUPN).
Is Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SUPN) a bargain? The smart money is getting more bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets moved up by 7 lately. Our calculations also showed that SUPN isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
Today there are tons of formulas shareholders employ to analyze stocks. A duo of the most innovative formulas are hedge fund and insider trading signals. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outperform the market by a significant amount (see the details here).
Let’s take a look at the recent hedge fund action encompassing Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SUPN).
How are hedge funds trading Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SUPN)?
Heading into the second quarter of 2019, a total of 22 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 47% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 20 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in SUPN a year ago. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Marshall Wace LLP was the largest shareholder of Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SUPN), with a stake worth $22.2 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing Marshall Wace LLP was Renaissance Technologies, which amassed a stake valued at $16.2 million. Millennium Management, Winton Capital Management, and Two Sigma Advisors were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, created the largest position in Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SUPN). Two Sigma Advisors had $8.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital also made a $2.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new SUPN positions are Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management, and Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt..
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SUPN). These stocks are First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME), Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT), LTC Properties Inc (NYSE:LTC), and LegacyTexas Financial Group Inc (NASDAQ:LTXB). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to SUPN’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FRME | 13 | 146654 | 0 |
| PLT | 19 | 91583 | 3 |
| LTC | 9 | 32304 | -3 |
| LTXB | 12 | 89912 | 0 |
| Average | 13.25 | 90113 | 0 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 13.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $90 million. That figure was $100 million in SUPN’s case. Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand LTC Properties Inc (NYSE:LTC) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SUPN) is more popular among hedge funds. 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. Unfortunately SUPN wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on SUPN were disappointed as the stock returned -11.6% during the same period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market in Q2.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
