The successful funds run by legendary investors such as Dan Loeb and David Tepper make hundreds of millions of dollars for themselves and their investors by spending enormous resources doing research on small cap stocks that big investment banks don’t follow. Because of their pay structures, they have strong incentive to do the research necessary to beat the market. That’s why we pay close attention to what they think in small cap stocks. In this article, we take a closer look at Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS) from the perspective of those successful funds.
Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2016. PIRS investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with PIRS holdings at the end of the second quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare PIRS to other stocks including Rocky Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKY), Arotech Corporation (NASDAQ:ARTX), and North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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Hedge fund activity in Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS)
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a 20% gain from one quarter earlier, and the fourth-straight quarter in which hedge fund ownership has increased by exactly 1 fund. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, OrbiMed Advisors, led by Samuel Isaly, holds the most valuable position in Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS). OrbiMed Advisors has a $13.3 million position in the stock. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Sabby Capital, led by Hal Mintz, which holds a $2.8 million position. Some other professional money managers with similar optimism encompass Mark Lampert’s Biotechnology Value Fund, Nathan Fischel’s DAFNA Capital Management, and Renaissance Technologies, one of the largest hedge funds in the world. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds, which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-micro-cap stocks.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names have jumped into Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS) headfirst. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies established the most outsized position in Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS). Renaissance Technologies had $0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the third quarter.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS). These stocks are Rocky Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKY), Arotech Corporation (NASDAQ:ARTX), North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA), and Nordic American Offshore Ltd (NYSE:NAO). This group of stocks’ market values match PIRS’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RCKY | 4 | 1947 | 0 |
| ARTX | 3 | 3854 | -1 |
| NOA | 5 | 14994 | -3 |
| NAO | 3 | 5942 | -2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $7 million. That figure was $18 million in PIRS’s case. North American Energy Partners Inc.(USA) (NYSE:NOA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Arotech Corporation (NASDAQ:ARTX) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.
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