In this article we will check out the progression of hedge fund sentiment towards Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE:BIOX) and determine whether it is a good investment right now. We at Insider Monkey like to examine what billionaires and hedge funds think of a company before spending days of research on it. Given their 2 and 20 payment structure, hedge funds have more incentives and resources than the average investor. The funds have access to expert networks and get tips from industry insiders. They also employ numerous Ivy League graduates and MBAs. Like everyone else, hedge funds perform miserably at times, but their consensus picks have historically outperformed the market after risk adjustments.
Is BIOX stock a buy? Prominent investors were buying. The number of long hedge fund positions advanced by 3 recently. Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE:BIOX) was in 4 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 7. Our calculations also showed that BIOX 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.
Philip Hempleman of Ardsley Partners
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, an activist hedge fund wants to buy this $27 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. Keeping this in mind let’s take a look at the new hedge fund action surrounding Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE:BIOX).
Do Hedge Funds Think BIOX Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At first quarter’s end, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 300% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards BIOX over the last 23 quarters. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Ardsley Partners, managed by Philip Hempleman, holds the biggest position in Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE:BIOX). Ardsley Partners has a $0.3 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Invenomic Capital Management, led by Ali Motamed, holding a $0.2 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish consist of Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Renaissance Technologies and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Invenomic Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE:BIOX), around 0.04% of its 13F portfolio. Ardsley Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.03 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to BIOX.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers have jumped into Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE:BIOX) headfirst. Ardsley Partners, managed by Philip Hempleman, assembled the biggest position in Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE:BIOX). Ardsley Partners had $0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ali Motamed’s Invenomic Capital Management also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE:BIOX). These stocks are Carter Bank & Trust (NASDAQ:CARE), Global Water Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:GWRS), Cadiz Inc (NASDAQ:CDZI), General Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:GFN), National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:NCMI), AgEagle Aerial Systems, Inc. (NYSE:UAVS), and Donegal Group Inc (NASDAQ:DGICA). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to BIOX’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CARE | 11 | 11892 | -1 |
| GWRS | 2 | 6403 | -1 |
| CDZI | 9 | 5235 | 2 |
| GFN | 4 | 17682 | 2 |
| NCMI | 11 | 14601 | 0 |
| UAVS | 5 | 1891 | 3 |
| DGICA | 9 | 15299 | 0 |
| Average | 7.3 | 10429 | 0.7 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 7.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $10 million. That figure was $1 million in BIOX’s case. Carter Bank & Trust (NASDAQ:CARE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Global Water Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:GWRS) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE:BIOX) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for BIOX is 36.3. 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. 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 still beat the market by 3.3 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on BIOX as the stock returned 37.2% since the end of the first quarter (through 6/11) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Follow Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE:BIOX)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
