After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 900 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of December 31st. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN).
Is RGEN stock a buy? Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN) investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN) was in 37 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistic is 35. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. There were 35 hedge funds in our database with RGEN positions at the end of the third quarter. Our calculations also showed that RGEN isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 124 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 13% through November 17th. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, the House passed a landmark bill decriminalizing marijuana. So, we are checking out this under the radar cannabis stock right now. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to buy to identify the next stock with 10x upside potential. 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. Now let’s take a gander at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN).
Do Hedge Funds Think RGEN Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At fourth quarter’s end, a total of 37 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 6% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 23 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in RGEN a year ago. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Marshall Wace LLP, managed by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, holds the biggest position in Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN). Marshall Wace LLP has a $283.9 million position in the stock, comprising 1.5% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Select Equity Group, managed by Robert Joseph Caruso, which holds a $237.3 million position; the fund has 1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other members of the smart money that hold long positions include Joel Ramin’s 12 West Capital Management, Renaissance Technologies and Ian Simm’s Impax Asset Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position 12 West Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN), around 9.07% of its 13F portfolio. Pinz Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 3.17 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to RGEN.
As one would reasonably expect, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Perceptive Advisors, managed by Joseph Edelman, created the most outsized position in Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN). Perceptive Advisors had $18.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew L Pinz’s Pinz Capital also made a $7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new RGEN positions are Efrem Kamen’s Pura Vida Investments, Krishen Sud’s Sivik Global Healthcare, and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN). We will take a look at First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR), Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc (NYSE:BFAM), Westlake Chemical Corporation (NYSE:WLK), L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB), Host Hotels and Resorts Inc (NYSE:HST), Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH), and ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to RGEN’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSLR | 34 | 406430 | -6 |
| BFAM | 20 | 308229 | -6 |
| WLK | 22 | 158454 | -4 |
| LB | 52 | 3908521 | 7 |
| HST | 22 | 127294 | 1 |
| BCH | 3 | 48096 | -1 |
| ICLR | 29 | 646187 | 5 |
| Average | 26 | 800459 | -0.6 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 26 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $800 million. That figure was $1331 million in RGEN’s case. L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for RGEN is 71.7. 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. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 7.9% in 2021 through April 1st and beat the market again by 0.4 percentage points. Unfortunately RGEN wasn’t nearly as popular as these 30 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on RGEN were disappointed as the stock returned 2% since the end of December (through 4/1) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
