Fred Alger Management, an investment management company, released its “Alger Small Cap Focus Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund underperformed the Russell 2000 Growth Index. The Health Care and Energy sectors contributed to the fund’s relative performance in the quarter, while Information Technology and Industrials detracted from performance. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.
Alger Small Cap Focus Fund highlighted stocks like Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is a diagnostics company. On May 8, 2023, Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) stock closed at $53.10 per share. One-month return of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) was 2.17%, and its shares gained 76.94% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) has a market capitalization of $6.184 billion.
Alger Small Cap Focus Fund made the following comment about Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is a specialty lab providing genetic testing services in the reproductive health, oncology and transplant markets. Natera’s test portfolio falls under three categories: (1) reproductive health; (2) oncology; and (3) transplant. Reproductive health tests are run to screen for common genetic disorders such as trisomy 13, 18, and 21 in pregnant women – these tests are also known as non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). The company’s oncology franchise is led by Signatera, a test used to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) – the applications of this test are primarily to monitor therapy response and detect cancer recurrence. Lastly, Natera’s transplant franchise is led by Prospera, a test used to monitor transplant organ rejection. Natera’s tests are all based on the company’s proprietary liquid biopsy platform to detect cell-free DNA. During the period, shares contributed to performance primarily driven by strong fiscal fourth quarter results, solid 2023 financial guidance and positive reimbursement coverage decisions. Specifically on reimbursement, Natera announced in February that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would be covering the company’s Signatera Breast test for eligible breast cancer patients. This is an important update as the company is already running a significant volume of Signatera Breast tests with limited reimbursement. Consequently, we believe CMS coverage should contribute to additional revenue, margin, and cash flow. Natera also announced the first two positive commercial payer coverage decisions for Signatera in March 2023.”
Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 42 hedge fund portfolios held Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 45 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) in another article and shared the list of best genomics stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
