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 at Insider Monkey have plowed through 752 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30th. In this article we look at what those investors think of CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV).
CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the third quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 3 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as KemPharm Inc (NASDAQ:KMPH), Cassava Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAVA), and China Green Agriculture, Inc (NYSE:CGA) to gather more data points. Our calculations also showed that CVV isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
To most market participants, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, old financial tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open today, Our experts look at the top tier of this club, about 750 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people preside over bulk of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by tailing their unrivaled investments, Insider Monkey has unsheathed several investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy exceeded the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in May 2014. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.8% since February 2017 (through November 21st) even though the market was up more than 39% during the same period. We just shared a list of 7 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Nelson Obus of Wynnefield Capital
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Discover is offering this insane cashback card, so we look into shorting the stock. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We even check out this option genius’ weekly trade ideas. This December, we recommended Adams Energy as a one-way bet based on an under-the-radar fund manager’s investor letter and the stock already gained 20 percent. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a glance at the recent hedge fund action surrounding CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV).
What does smart money think about CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in CVV over the last 17 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV) was held by Manatuck Hill Partners, which reported holding $0.5 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Renaissance Technologies with a $0.4 million position. The only other hedge fund that is bullish on the company was Wynnefield Capital.
Earlier we told you that the aggregate hedge fund interest in the stock was unchanged and we view this as a negative development. Even though there weren’t any hedge funds dumping their holdings during the third quarter, there weren’t any hedge funds initiating brand new positions. This indicates that hedge funds, at the very best, perceive this stock as dead money and they haven’t identified any viable catalysts that can attract investor attention.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV). These stocks are KemPharm Inc (NASDAQ:KMPH), Cassava Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAVA), China Green Agriculture, Inc (NYSE:CGA), and VirTra, Inc. (NASDAQ:VTSI). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to CVV’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| KMPH | 1 | 477 | 0 |
| SAVA | 1 | 1022 | 0 |
| CGA | 1 | 269 | 0 |
| VTSI | 1 | 34 | -1 |
| Average | 1 | 451 | -0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $0 million. That figure was $1 million in CVV’s case. KemPharm Inc (NASDAQ:KMPH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand KemPharm Inc (NASDAQ:KMPH) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. Unfortunately CVV wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on CVV were disappointed as the stock returned -0.9% during the first two months of the fourth quarter 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 70 percent of these stocks already outperformed the market in Q4.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
