Where Do Hedge Funds Stand On Appian Corporation (APPN)?

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 866 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. What do these smart investors think about Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN)?

Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the second quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 24 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. Our calculations also showed that APPN 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 First Horizon Corporation (NYSE:FHN), AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR), and Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK) to gather more data points.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are a lot of signals stock traders use to grade their stock investments. A couple of the most useful signals are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a very impressive amount (see the details here). Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 (through May 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 115 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website .

Matthew Halbower of Pentwater Capital

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Chuck Schumer recently stated that marijuana legalization will be a Senate priority. So, we are checking out this under the radar stock that will benefit from this. 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. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a look at the new hedge fund action regarding Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN).

Do Hedge Funds Think APPN Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At Q1’s end, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 17 hedge funds with a bullish position in APPN a year ago. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Among these funds, Abdiel Capital Advisors held the most valuable stake in Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN), which was worth $702.1 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was D E Shaw which amassed $89.8 million worth of shares. Millennium Management, Citadel Investment Group, 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 Abdiel Capital Advisors allocated the biggest weight to Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN), around 22.57% of its 13F portfolio. StackLine Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 4.41 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to APPN.

Since Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN) has experienced bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there were a few funds who were dropping their full holdings by the end of the first quarter. Interestingly, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP dumped the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $13.5 million in stock. Steve Cohen’s fund, Point72 Asset Management, also dumped its stock, about $5.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at First Horizon Corporation (NYSE:FHN), AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR), Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK), Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc (NASDAQ:JAZZ), First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR), Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA), and Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (NYSE:SID). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble APPN’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 27.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $693 million. That figure was $914 million in APPN’s case. Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (NYSE:SID) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for APPN is 58.3. 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 23.8% in 2021 through July 16th and surpassed the market again by 7.7 percentage points. Unfortunately APPN wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); APPN investors were disappointed as the stock returned -12.8% since the end of March (through 7/16) 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.

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