In this article, we will look at the 7 Best Small-Cap Value Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds. Let’s look at where Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ) stands against other small-cap value stocks.
Today’s AI-fueled era of the “Magnificient Seven” technology stocks is dominating the US stock market. However, investing with a focus on value stocks hasn’t lost its popularity. In March, a Bloomberg report detailed how many investment firms were pouring money into value stocks, primarily in sectors like energy, financials, utilities, and materials.
Among the various investors preferring these sectors, Nanette Abuhoff Jacobson, global investment strategist of Hartford Funds, who liked stocks from these “unloved sectors,” made the list. The Bloomberg report also mentioned Presilium Private Wealth, which found value investing to be attractive in the current environment.
During the 2024 Sohn Investment Conference, billionaire David Einhorn claimed that it was a great time to be a value investor, while also continuing to say that value investing is dead as an industry. When asked about these contradictory statements, he said that the value investing industry and value investing as an investing strategy are two distinct things.
Many fund managers who were paid heavily by people to research undervalued stocks for them have lost their jobs and assets under management amid a shift to index funds where “millions of dollars were redeemed” out of those conventional strategies. But Einhorn said that this development has decreased the competition in the industry, paving the way for people like him to be in a unique position to find undervalued stocks.
Are Value Stocks a Better Choice Than Growth Stocks?
On August 16, Vahan Janjigian, CIO at Greenwich Wealth Management, joined “The Exchange” on CNBC to discuss why value stocks may perform better than growth stocks in a low-rate environment. Broadly speaking, investors seem to think that lower interest rates are better for growth stocks as compared to value stocks. Janjigian believes that it also depends upon the shape of the yield curve. With the economy stabilizing and the Fed cutting interest rates, the yield curve can potentially normalize. He says that this happening can prove better for value stocks that pay good dividends than for growth stocks that do not pay dividends.
Janjigian also says that although he invests in other stocks through ETFs, he tends to be a value investor, favoring value stocks that pay good dividends and have been growing over time. He named three of his favorites, which include Pfizer, Verizon, and IBM. Viewing these stocks as substitutes for bonds, he reflects on the similarities between the two, claiming that they are long-term investments with very good yields.
Dave Sekera, Morningstar’s Chief U.S. Market Strategist, said that the best value is in the small cap category. In a CNBC interview in August, he said that the small-cap category trades at a 15% discount to their fair value, highlighting stocks like Kraft Heinz that looked like attractive investments.
Our Methodology
We first consulted stock screeners from Finviz and Yahoo Finance, along with online rankings, to create an initial list of 15 publicly traded companies with market caps between $1 billion and $10 billion (our definition of small caps) and forward P/E ratios of less than 15 as of October 1, 2024. From this list, we selected the 7 stocks with the highest number of hedge funds holders as of Q2 2024, and used that as our ranking metric. We gave preference to stocks that come from sectors like consumer, healthcare, energy, materials, and utilities.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
7 Best Small-Cap Value Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds
Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:JAZZ)
Market Cap: $6.88 billion
Forward P/E: 5.71
EPS Growth This Year: 7.00%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44
Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:JAZZ) develops medicines for serious diseases. Its primary marketed products include Xywav, Xyrem oral solution, Epidiolex oral solution, Rylaze, Zepzelca, Defitelio, and Vyxeos liposome for injection. These medicines treat excess daytime sleepiness (EDS) in narcolepsy patients seven years of age or older, tepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD), and other ailments.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:JAZZ) boasts a significant commercial presence, making Q2 2024 its largest revenue quarter ever. It generated more than $1 billion in total revenues across its growing and diversified portfolio of medicines. In narcolepsy, its product Xywav remains the number one treatment, experiencing strong patient demand. Xywav is also the first and only approved therapy for Idiopathic hypersomnia, helping the company build the market. Epidiolex has continued performance in the market for around six years, growing sales to around $247 million in Q2. These numbers highlight the potential of the company’s products.
Patient demand is continuing to increase due to several US commercial initiatives undertaken by the company. Its market expansion outside the US is also continuing rapidly. It’s oncology therapeutic area is experiencing continued growth as well, with Zepzelca having a strong quarter. Rylaze is also seeing increased utilization in the pediatric population.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:JAZZ) is undertaking initiatives to ensure that it continues on this positive trajectory. It is using a mid-to-long-term framework to ensure it allocates capital for the maximization of patient benefits and company value instead of merely maximizing near-term margins.
Aristotle Capital Global Equity Strategy made the following comment about Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (NASDAQ:JAZZ) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:
“During the quarter, we sold our position in Magna International and invested in a new position, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (NASDAQ:JAZZ). Founded in 2003, Jazz Pharmaceuticals is a global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Ireland. The drugmaker’s portfolio of nine approved products focuses on conditions with limited therapeutic treatments in neuroscience (~75% of 2022 revenue) and oncology (~25%).
Jazz’s drug Xyrem was added to its portfolio in 2005 and was approved for use in patients with narcolepsy. The drug’s strong efficacy propelled it to be the standard of care for this incurable sleep condition and has achieved wide adoption for treating excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy (episodes of loss of muscle control).
Xyrem’s patent exclusivity ended in January 2023, and authorized generic versions of the product have entered the market. To prepare for the patent cliff, the company developed Xywav, a lower‐sodium version of Xyrem, which is touted for its potentially better heart safety. The drug has received FDA approval for the treatment of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia and has orphan drug exclusivity through 2027…”
Overall, JAZZ ranks fifth among the 7 best small-cap value stocks to buy according to hedge funds. While we acknowledge the potential of JAZZ as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than JAZZ but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
