A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended March 31st, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Iterum Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ITRM).
Is ITRM a good stock to buy? Iterum Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ITRM) investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. Iterum Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ITRM) was in 4 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 4. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. There were 3 hedge funds in our database with ITRM positions at the end of the fourth quarter. Our calculations also showed that ITRM isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).
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John Overdeck of Two Sigma Advisors
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Do Hedge Funds Think ITRM Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At first quarter’s end, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 33% from the fourth quarter of 2020. By comparison, 1 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in ITRM a year ago. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Frazier Healthcare Partners, managed by Alan Frazier, holds the number one position in Iterum Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ITRM). Frazier Healthcare Partners has a $2.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Two Sigma Advisors, led by John Overdeck and David Siegel, holding a $0.3 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other members of the smart money that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Frazier Healthcare Partners allocated the biggest weight to Iterum Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ITRM), around 0.17% of its 13F portfolio. Two Sigma Advisors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.0008 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ITRM.
As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, initiated the most outsized position in Iterum Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ITRM). Two Sigma Advisors had $0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Iterum Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ITRM) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Stellus Capital Investment Corporation (NYSE:SCM), Ocwen Financial Corporation (NYSE:OCN), Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP), Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE:BHR), MediciNova, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNOV), Flexsteel Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLXS), and Bel Fuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:BELFB). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble ITRM’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCM | 3 | 3649 | -1 |
| OCN | 10 | 43684 | -2 |
| CRBP | 5 | 3931 | -5 |
| BHR | 17 | 25551 | 1 |
| MNOV | 4 | 1162 | 0 |
| FLXS | 10 | 60969 | -1 |
| BELFB | 8 | 21978 | 1 |
| Average | 8.1 | 22989 | -1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 8.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $23 million. That figure was $3 million in ITRM’s case. Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE:BHR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Stellus Capital Investment Corporation (NYSE:SCM) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Iterum Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ITRM) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ITRM is 39.6. 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 ITRM as the stock returned 33.3% since the end of the first quarter (through 6/11) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
