We at Insider Monkey have gone over 866 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS) based on that data.
Is Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS) undervalued? The smart money was betting on the stock. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 3 recently. Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 3. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that ATOS isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings). There were 3 hedge funds in our database with ATOS holdings at the end of December.
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Gavin Saitowitz of Prelude Capital
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. Now we’re going to view the new hedge fund action surrounding Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS).
Do Hedge Funds Think ATOS Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At first quarter’s end, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 100% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 0 hedge funds with a bullish position in ATOS a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS), which was worth $7 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Citadel Investment Group which amassed $0.9 million worth of shares. Sabby Capital, OZ Management, and Two Sigma Advisors 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 Sabby Capital allocated the biggest weight to Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS), around 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Renaissance Technologies is also relatiTherapeutics, Inc.ely very bullish on the stock, designating 0.01 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ATOS.
As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Sabby Capital, managed by Hal Mintz, initiated the most valuable position in Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS). Sabby Capital had $0.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management also made a $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ATOS positions are Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners and Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Prelude Capital (previously Springbok Capital).
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Clever Leaves Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:CLVR), Taiwan Liposome Company, Ltd. (NASDAQ:TLC), Target Hospitality Corp. (NASDAQ:TH), 9 Meters Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:NMTR), Alpine Immune Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALPN), Wunong Net Technology Company Limited (NASDAQ:WNW), and Territorial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:TBNK). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to ATOS’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CLVR | 8 | 28927 | -1 |
| TLC | 1 | 125 | 0 |
| TH | 8 | 13213 | -1 |
| NMTR | 15 | 61920 | 6 |
| ALPN | 16 | 93446 | -1 |
| WNW | 1 | 167 | 1 |
| TBNK | 4 | 22781 | -1 |
| Average | 7.6 | 31511 | 0.4 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 7.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $32 million. That figure was $8 million in ATOS’s case. Alpine Immune Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALPN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Taiwan Liposome Company, Ltd. (NASDAQ:TLC) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ATOS is 54.7. 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. 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 still beat the market by 4.8 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on ATOS as the stock returned 308.5% since the end of the first quarter (through 6/25) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
