Where Do Hedge Funds Stand On Calyxt, Inc. (CLXT)?

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. We have processed the filings of the more than 866 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their March 31st holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLXT) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.

Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLXT) was in 5 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 5. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. CLXT has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 4 hedge funds in our database with CLXT holdings at the end of December. Our calculations also showed that CLXT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace

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 $23 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. With all of this in mind let’s review the latest hedge fund action encompassing Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLXT).

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

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 5 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 CLXT over the last 23 quarters. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

The largest stake in Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLXT) was held by Marshall Wace LLP, which reported holding $0.6 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by Renaissance Technologies with a $0.2 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Citadel Investment Group, ExodusPoint Capital, and Two Sigma Advisors. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Marshall Wace LLP allocated the biggest weight to Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLXT), around 0.0028% of its 13F portfolio. ExodusPoint Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.0019 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CLXT.

Now, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Marshall Wace LLP, managed by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, created the most outsized position in Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLXT). Marshall Wace LLP had $0.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new CLXT positions are Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLXT). These stocks are CompX International Inc. (NYSE:CIX), LCNB Corp. (NASDAQ:LCNB), Maui Land & Pineapple Co. (NYSE:MLP), Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO), Applied Optoelectronics Inc (NASDAQ:AAOI), Lakeland Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:LAKE), and CTI Biopharma Corp. (NASDAQ:CTIC). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to CLXT’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 6.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $19 million. That figure was $1 million in CLXT’s case. CTI Biopharma Corp. (NASDAQ:CTIC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand LCNB Corp. (NASDAQ:LCNB) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLXT) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for CLXT is 51.4. 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 17.4% in 2021 through June 18th and surpassed the market again by 6.1 percentage points. Unfortunately CLXT wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); CLXT investors were disappointed as the stock returned -26.6% since the end of March (through 6/18) 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.

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

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