The 800+ hedge funds and famous money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the first quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of March 31st. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund portfolios. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards Akumin Inc. (NASDAQ:AKU).
Hedge fund interest in Akumin Inc. (NASDAQ:AKU) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. Our calculations also showed that AKU isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings). The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as X Financial (NYSE:XYF), Atlantic Power Corp (NYSE:AT), and Ciner Resources LP (NYSE:CINR) to gather more data points.
In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s monthly stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, an activist hedge fund owns nearly 40% of this $24 biotech stock and is trying to buy the rest for around $50. So, we recommended a long position to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. 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 homepage. Keeping this in mind let’s go over the key hedge fund action encompassing Akumin Inc. (NASDAQ:AKU).
Do Hedge Funds Think AKU Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
Heading into the second quarter of 2021, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 0% from the fourth quarter of 2020. On the other hand, there were a total of 0 hedge funds with a bullish position in AKU a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, SCW Capital Management was the largest shareholder of Akumin Inc. (NASDAQ:AKU), with a stake worth $42.3 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing SCW Capital Management was Nantahala Capital Management, which amassed a stake valued at $21.4 million. Prosight Capital, ExodusPoint Capital, and Citadel Investment Group 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 SCW Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Akumin Inc. (NASDAQ:AKU), around 26.48% of its 13F portfolio. Prosight Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 1.3 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to AKU.
We view hedge fund activity in the stock unfavorable, but in this case there was only a single hedge fund selling its entire position: Royce & Associates. One hedge fund selling its entire position doesn’t always imply a bearish intent. Theoretically a hedge fund may decide to sell a promising position in order to invest the proceeds in a more promising idea. However, we don’t think this is the case in this case because only one of the 800+ hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey identified as a viable investment and initiated a position in the stock (that fund was Citadel Investment Group).
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Akumin Inc. (NASDAQ:AKU) but similarly valued. We will take a look at X Financial (NYSE:XYF), Atlantic Power Corp (NYSE:AT), Ciner Resources LP (NYSE:CINR), RedHill Biopharma Ltd (NASDAQ:RDHL), Ondas Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ONDS), AGM Group Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:AGMH), and PARTS iD, Inc. (NYSE:ID). This group of stocks’ market values resemble AKU’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| XYF | 4 | 2177 | 1 |
| AT | 21 | 35743 | 11 |
| CINR | 1 | 2313 | 0 |
| RDHL | 4 | 18799 | 1 |
| ONDS | 5 | 2690 | 2 |
| AGMH | 1 | 144 | 0 |
| ID | 6 | 8061 | 2 |
| Average | 6 | 9990 | 2.4 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $10 million. That figure was $66 million in AKU’s case. Atlantic Power Corp (NYSE:AT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Ciner Resources LP (NYSE:CINR) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Akumin Inc. (NASDAQ:AKU) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for AKU is 47.5. 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 negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 19.3% in 2021 through June 25th and surpassed the market again by 4.8 percentage points. Unfortunately AKU wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); AKU investors were disappointed as the stock returned -8.9% since the end of March (through 6/25) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2021.
Follow Akumin Inc. (NASDAQ:AKUMQ)
Follow Akumin Inc. (NASDAQ:AKUMQ)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
