Lantheus Holdings Inc (LNTH): Hedge Funds Are Adding

The financial regulations require hedge funds and wealthy investors that exceeded the $100 million equity holdings threshold to file a report that shows their positions at the end of every quarter. Even though it isn’t the intention, these filings to a certain extent level the playing field for ordinary investors. The latest round of 13F filings disclosed the funds’ positions on March 31st, about a week after the S&P 500 Index bottomed. We at Insider Monkey have made an extensive database of more than 821 of those established hedge funds and famous value investors’ filings. In this article, we analyze how these elite funds and prominent investors traded Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) based on those filings.

Is Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) a sound investment right now? The best stock pickers are turning bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets rose by 4 recently. Our calculations also showed that LNTH 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).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

In the financial world there are dozens of methods stock market investors can use to analyze their stock investments. Two of the most innovative methods are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a solid amount (see the details here).

Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace

We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. We take a look at lists like the 10 most profitable companies in the world to identify the compounders that are likely to deliver double digit returns. 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. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a glance at the latest hedge fund action surrounding Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH).

How are hedge funds trading Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 25% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in LNTH over the last 18 quarters. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Armistice Capital held the most valuable stake in Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH), which was worth $16.9 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Renaissance Technologies which amassed $16 million worth of shares. Cloverdale Capital Management, Arrowstreet Capital, and AQR Capital Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Cloverdale Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH), around 8.6% of its 13F portfolio. Armistice Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 1.04 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to LNTH.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Armistice Capital, managed by Steven Boyd, created the most outsized position in Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH). Armistice Capital had $16.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also made a $3.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager, Mika Toikka’s AlphaCrest Capital Management, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH). We will take a look at Loral Space & Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:LORL), Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC), LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT), and Camping World Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CWH). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble LNTH’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $80 million. That figure was $78 million in LNTH’s case. Loral Space & Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:LORL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) is more popular among hedge funds. 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 12.2% in 2020 through June 17th and still beat the market by 14.8 percentage points. Unfortunately LNTH wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on LNTH were disappointed as the stock returned 8.5% during the second quarter (through June 17th) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.