Hedge Funds and other institutional investors have just completed filing their 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing their equity portfolios as of the end of September. At Insider Monkey, we follow over 700 of the best-performing investors and by analyzing their 13F filings, we can determine the stocks that they are collectively bullish on. One of their picks is Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX), so let’s take a closer look at the sentiment that surrounds it in the current quarter.
Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the third quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. It is important to note that the shares of Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX) were trading 10.06% higher during the third quarter. This contradictory behavior prompted us to find out more about the hedge funds holding positions in Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX), at the end of the last quarter.
At the end of this article, we will also compare Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX) to other stocks, including Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESIO), Daqo New Energy Corp (NYSE:DQ), and Core Molding Technologies, Inc. (NYSEMKT:CMT) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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In today’s marketplace, there are many formulas shareholders employ to appraise stocks. A couple of the less utilized formulas are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a superb amount (see the details here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to view the key action encompassing Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX).
How have hedgies been trading Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, unchanged from the second quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital has the most valuable position in Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX), worth close to $13.7 million, amounting to 0.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Tourbillon Capital Partners, managed by Jason Karp, which holds an $11 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other members of the smart money that are bullish contain Kevin Kotler’s Broadfin Capital, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group, and Ari Zweiman’s 683 Capital Partners.
Judging by the fact that Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX) has witnessed a declining sentiment from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few money managers who were dropping their positions entirely last quarter. Interestingly, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management dropped the largest position of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $0.4 million in stock. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX) but similarly valued. These stocks are Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESIO), Daqo New Energy Corp (NYSE:DQ), Core Molding Technologies, Inc. (NYSEMKT:CMT), and Neff Corp (NYSE:NEFF). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX)’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ESIO | 10 | 29822 | -2 |
| DQ | 4 | 17050 | -1 |
| CMT | 5 | 14357 | 1 |
| NEFF | 5 | 8671 | 0 |
As you can see, these stocks had an average of 6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $17 million. That figure was $35 million in Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX)’s case. Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESIO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Daqo New Energy Corp (NYSE:DQ) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DPRX) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard, Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESIO) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
