At the end of February we announced the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we predicted that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT).
Is vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT) a worthy investment today? Money managers are becoming more confident. The number of bullish hedge fund positions improved by 1 lately. Our calculations also showed that VTVT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks). VTVT was in 4 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. There were 3 hedge funds in our database with VTVT positions at the end of the previous quarter.
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In the financial world there are a multitude of methods market participants employ to size up publicly traded companies. A couple of the most useful methods are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can beat the broader indices by a very impressive amount (see the details here).
John Overdeck of Two Sigma Advisors
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, 2020’s unprecedented market conditions provide us with the highest number of trading opportunities in a decade. So we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind let’s take a look at the new hedge fund action encompassing vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT).
How are hedge funds trading vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 33% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards VTVT over the last 18 quarters. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Frazier Healthcare Partners, managed by Alan Frazier, holds the number one position in vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT). Frazier Healthcare Partners has a $2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Renaissance Technologies, holding a $0.6 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other professional money managers with similar optimism consist of Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Frazier Healthcare Partners allocated the biggest weight to vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT), around 0.23% of its 13F portfolio. Renaissance Technologies is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.0005 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to VTVT.
Now, key hedge funds have jumped into vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT) headfirst. Frazier Healthcare Partners, managed by Alan Frazier, established the most outsized position in vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT). Frazier Healthcare Partners had $2 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. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT) but similarly valued. These stocks are Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd. (NYSE:XIN), L.B. Foster Company (NASDAQ:FSTR), Duluth Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTH), and Superior Group of Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGC). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble VTVT’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| XIN | 6 | 1174 | -1 |
| FSTR | 11 | 30584 | -1 |
| DLTH | 8 | 4692 | -1 |
| SGC | 3 | 2543 | -1 |
| Average | 7 | 9748 | -1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $10 million. That figure was $3 million in VTVT’s case. L.B. Foster Company (NASDAQ:FSTR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Superior Group of Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGC) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 8.3% in 2020 through the end of May and still beat the market by 13.2 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on VTVT as the stock returned 50.8% during the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Follow Vtv Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:VTVT)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
