Last year we predicted the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we told in advance that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards Celcuity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELC).
Is Celcuity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELC) a buy, sell, or hold? Hedge funds were taking a bullish view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets improved by 5 recently. Celcuity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELC) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic was previously 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 CELC isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).
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Timothy P. Lynch of Stonepine 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. With all of this in mind let’s take a peek at the latest hedge fund action surrounding Celcuity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELC).
Do Hedge Funds Think CELC Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of March, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 500% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 2 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in CELC a year ago. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Granite Point Capital held the most valuable stake in Celcuity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELC), which was worth $2.9 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Nantahala Capital Management which amassed $1.9 million worth of shares. Stonepine Capital, G2 Investment Partners Management, and Renaissance Technologies 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 Stonepine Capital allocated the biggest weight to Celcuity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELC), around 0.84% of its 13F portfolio. Manatuck Hill Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.25 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CELC.
As industrywide interest jumped, some big names have jumped into Celcuity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELC) headfirst. Granite Point Capital, managed by Warren Lammert, established the most valuable position in Celcuity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELC). Granite Point Capital had $2.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack’s Nantahala Capital Management also initiated a $1.9 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CELC investors: Timothy P. Lynch’s Stonepine Capital, Josh Goldberg’s G2 Investment Partners Management, and Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Celcuity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELC) but similarly valued. These stocks are Intevac, Inc. (NASDAQ:IVAC), PolyPid Ltd. (NASDAQ:PYPD), DiaMedica Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:DMAC), Evofem Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVFM), Koss Corporation (NASDAQ:KOSS), Clearsign Technologies Corp (NASDAQ:CLIR), and SMTC Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTX). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to CELC’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| IVAC | 11 | 21628 | 6 |
| PYPD | 5 | 9547 | 1 |
| DMAC | 11 | 35873 | -1 |
| EVFM | 10 | 12671 | 3 |
| KOSS | 4 | 2983 | 2 |
| CLIR | 3 | 1685 | 2 |
| SMTX | 7 | 22992 | 1 |
| Average | 7.3 | 15340 | 2 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 7.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $15 million. That figure was $9 million in CELC’s case. Intevac, Inc. (NASDAQ:IVAC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Clearsign Technologies Corp (NASDAQ:CLIR) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Celcuity Inc. (NASDAQ:CELC) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for CELC is 58.8. 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 CELC as the stock returned 108.1% 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.