After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 900 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of March 31st. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPTH).
Is BPTH a good stock to buy? Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPTH) has experienced an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPTH) was in 3 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 4. Our calculations also showed that BPTH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).
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. Hedge funds have more than $3.5 trillion in assets under management, so you can’t expect their entire portfolios to beat the market by large margins. Our research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). So you can still find a lot of gems by following hedge funds’ moves today.
Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, an activist hedge fund wants to buy this $28 biotech stock for $50. So, we recommended a long position to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. With all of this in mind let’s take a look at the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPTH).
Do Hedge Funds Think BPTH Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At Q1’s end, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 200% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 2 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in BPTH a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPTH) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $0.5 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by Sabby Capital with a $0.5 million position. The only other hedge fund that is bullish on the company was Citadel Investment Group.
As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Sabby Capital, managed by Hal Mintz, created the most outsized position in Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPTH). Sabby Capital had $0.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $0.1 million position during the quarter.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPTH) but similarly valued. We will take a look at iFresh Inc. (NASDAQ:IFMK), Permianville Royalty Trust (NYSE:PVL), Flexible Solutions International, Inc. (NYSE:FSI), Solitario Zinc Corp. (NYSE:XPL), Zhongchao Inc. (NASDAQ:ZCMD), Virco Mfg. Corporation (NASDAQ:VIRC), and ICC Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCH). This group of stocks’ market caps match BPTH’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFMK | 2 | 574 | 1 |
| PVL | 2 | 76 | 0 |
| FSI | 1 | 2499 | 0 |
| XPL | 3 | 1163 | 1 |
| ZCMD | 2 | 311 | 1 |
| VIRC | 4 | 4114 | 1 |
| ICCH | 3 | 1476 | 0 |
| Average | 2.4 | 1459 | 0.6 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 2.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1 million. That figure was $1 million in BPTH’s case. Virco Mfg. Corporation (NASDAQ:VIRC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Flexible Solutions International, Inc. (NYSE:FSI) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPTH) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for BPTH is 62.8. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 17.2% in 2021 through June 11th and beat the market again by 3.3 percentage points. Unfortunately BPTH wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on BPTH were disappointed as the stock returned -2.4% since the end of March (through 6/11) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.