Is Gamida Cell Ltd. (NASDAQ:GMDA) a good place to invest some of your money right now? We can gain invaluable insight to help us answer that question by studying the investment trends of top investors, who employ world-class Ivy League graduates, who are given immense resources and industry contacts to put their financial expertise to work. The top picks of these firms have historically outperformed the market when we account for known risk factors, making them very valuable investment ideas.
Is GMDA a good stock to buy now? Gamida Cell Ltd. (NASDAQ:GMDA) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. Gamida Cell Ltd. (NASDAQ:GMDA) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistics is 9. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that GMDA isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
According to most traders, hedge funds are seen as slow, outdated investment tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation today, Our researchers look at the top tier of this group, approximately 850 funds. These money managers shepherd bulk of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by keeping track of their best investments, Insider Monkey has figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically surpassed Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per year since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 13% since February 2017 (through November 17th) even though the market was up 65% during the same period. We just shared a list of 6 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Kris Jenner of Rock Springs Capital Management
At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost real estate prices. So, we recommended this real estate stock to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 15 best blue chip stocks to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. 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 website. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a look at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Gamida Cell Ltd. (NASDAQ:GMDA).
Do Hedge Funds Think GMDA Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At Q3’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 11% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards GMDA over the last 21 quarters. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Biotechnology Value Fund / BVF Inc held the most valuable stake in Gamida Cell Ltd. (NASDAQ:GMDA), which was worth $8.9 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Rock Springs Capital Management which amassed $8.4 million worth of shares. Driehaus Capital, Baker Bros. Advisors, and Alyeska Investment Group were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Biotechnology Value Fund / BVF Inc allocated the biggest weight to Gamida Cell Ltd. (NASDAQ:GMDA), around 0.48% of its 13F portfolio. Rock Springs Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.21 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GMDA.
As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, initiated the most valuable position in Gamida Cell Ltd. (NASDAQ:GMDA). Citadel Investment Group had $0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Gamida Cell Ltd. (NASDAQ:GMDA) but similarly valued. These stocks are Verastem Inc (NASDAQ:VSTM), Mastech Digital, Inc. (NYSE:MHH), Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (NASDAQ:RRGB), Organigram Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:OGI), Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRA), Misonix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSON), and BlueLinx Holdings Inc. (NYSE:BXC). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble GMDA’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| VSTM | 11 | 34590 | -7 |
| MHH | 4 | 4989 | 1 |
| RRGB | 10 | 12324 | -4 |
| OGI | 4 | 1883 | -1 |
| VRA | 17 | 29891 | 4 |
| MSON | 10 | 24393 | 3 |
| BXC | 13 | 64708 | 3 |
| Average | 9.9 | 24683 | -0.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 9.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $25 million. That figure was $31 million in GMDA’s case. Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Mastech Digital, Inc. (NYSE:MHH) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Gamida Cell Ltd. (NASDAQ:GMDA) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for GMDA is 59.1. 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 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10 percentage points. These stocks gained 32.9% in 2020 through December 8th and still beat the market by 16.2 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on GMDA as the stock returned 165.1% since the end of Q3 (through 12/8) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
