The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge funds have been producing disappointing net returns in recent years, however that was partly due to the poor performance of small-cap stocks in general. Well, small-cap stocks finally turned the corner and have been beating the large-cap stocks by more than 10 percentage points over the last 5 months.This means the relevancy of hedge funds’ public filings became inarguable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Intellia Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NTLA).
Intellia Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NTLA) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. NTLA investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world’s most successful money managers in recent months. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with NTLA positions at the end of June. At the end of this article we will also compare NTLA to other stocks including National Presto Industries Inc. (NYSE:NPK), TriCo Bancshares (NASDAQ:TCBK), and Green Plains Partners LP (NASDAQ:GPP) to get a better sense of its popularity.
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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What does the smart money think about Intellia Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NTLA)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a 13% increase from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 8 hedge funds held shares of the company at the end of June, following its second quarter IPO. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors holds the number one position in Intellia Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NTLA). OrbiMed Advisors has a $45.3 million position in the stock. On OrbiMed Advisors’ heels is Julian Baker and Felix Baker’s Baker Bros. Advisors, holding an $18.1 million position. Other members of the smart money with similar optimism comprise Oleg Nodelman’s EcoR1 Capital, Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom’s Sectoral Asset Management, and Millennium Management, one of the 10 largest hedge funds in the world. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-micro-cap stocks.
As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have jumped into Intellia Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NTLA) headfirst. Millennium Management assembled the most valuable position in Intellia Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NTLA). Millennium Management had $2.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Hal Mintz’s Sabby Capital also made a $1.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group and Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Intellia Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NTLA) but similarly valued. These stocks are National Presto Industries Inc. (NYSE:NPK), TriCo Bancshares (NASDAQ:TCBK), Green Plains Partners LP (NASDAQ:GPP), and Crocs, Inc. (NASDAQ:CROX). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to NTLA’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NPK | 12 | 80818 | -1 |
| TCBK | 7 | 27881 | 1 |
| GPP | 5 | 83207 | 0 |
| CROX | 10 | 37086 | 2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 8 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $57 million. That figure was $74 million in NTLA’s case. National Presto Industries Inc. (NYSE:NPK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Green Plains Partners LP (NASDAQ:GPP) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Intellia Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NTLA) 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 NPK might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
