Why Is Minerva Advisors Bullish on InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (INFU) Right Now?

We recently compiled a list of the 10 Best Small-Cap Stocks to Buy Now According to Minerva Advisors. In this article, we are going to take a look at where InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU) stands against the other small-cap stocks.

Established in the fourth quarter of 2002, Minerva Advisors, based in Pennsylvania, is an activist hedge fund managed by David Cohen. The firm specializes in equity investments, concentrating on small-cap and micro-cap value companies listed in the United States. Minerva Advisors employs a variety of investment strategies, including long bias, market dislocation exploitation, event-driven approaches, long-short strategies, thrift conversions, merger arbitrage, and capital structure arbitrage. From time to time, David Cohen launches activist campaigns targeting small portfolio companies in which Minerva Advisors holds relatively large equity stakes. One such example is the newspaper publisher A. H. Belo which was trading at around $4 per share when the stock had $2.58 in net cash per share on its balance sheet as well as other assets with a combined value of more than $4, hence valuing the company’s publishing business at zero.

David P. Cohen holds dual roles as President and Chief Compliance Officer at Minerva Advisors LLC, where he manages investment portfolios and research activities. His expertise lies in investing in small-cap and micro-cap companies, both in the U.S. and internationally, focusing particularly on the industrial and financial sectors. Cohen is the sole managing member of Minerva.

Before his tenure at Minerva, Mr. Cohen founded and served as President of Athena Capital Management, Inc. from 1988 to 2011. Athena later merged with Minerva Advisors. His career began as a research analyst and portfolio manager at a Philadelphia-based investment partnership from 1984 to 1988. Beyond his professional roles, Cohen has extensive board experience. He has been a member of the board of directors at CampusWorks, Inc. since 2011 and previously served on the board of Penn-America Group, a publicly held insurance company, from 1993 to 1997. Cohen earned his undergraduate degree from Haverford College, grounding his career in a solid academic foundation.

Minerva Advisors manages nearly $300 million in discretionary assets, as reported in their Form ADV filed in March 2024. The fund serves 7 clients and recently disclosed holdings of $163 million in managed 13F securities for Q1 2024, with its top ten holdings making up 62.67% of the portfolio.

Our Methodology

The stocks discussed in this article are part of Minerva Advisors’ investment portfolio as of the first quarter of 2024. To provide readers with comprehensive insights into these companies, we’ve included analyst ratings and other pertinent details. Additionally, we highlight the number of hedge fund investors involved in each company. Why focus on the stocks that hedge funds invest in? Our research shows that mimicking the top picks of the best hedge funds can lead to market-beating returns. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy, which selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks each quarter, has returned 275% since May 2014, outperforming its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here)

An oncology center with medical staff operating infusion pumps in the background.

InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 7

Minerva Advisors held 846,851 shares of InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU) valued at $7,274,451 by the end of Q1 2024. This investment made up 4.45% of Minerva Advisors’ portfolio, as per regulatory filings. InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU)’s stock hasn’t done as well as the S&P 500, but the company has made big investments that should start paying off in 2024 and later. According to CEO Rich Dilorio, growth in 2024 is expected to be driven by InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU)’s Biomed and Wound Care businesses, with chances for expansion and higher profits.

“In Biomed, this means completing the GE onboarding and then adding incremental projects to our growing national network of technicians. In Wound Care, this will mean continuing to place hardware into the channel and working with our joint venture partner Sanara to open that channel for distribution of the joint venture’s Advanced Wound Care products. Both of these opportunities will continue to scale and they will become significantly more accretive in 2024. Both have tremendous remaining potential, and both are expected to be material contributors to our top and bottom-line growth for years to come.”

Mr. Dilorio also said in their Q3 2023 conference call that 2023 has been focused on execution. He expects that in 2024, InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU) will see significant improvements in operating returns:

“So, 2023 has been an execution year in terms of delivering new revenue opportunities and setting the stage for more revenue in future years. The next phase of execution will be the fine-tuning and the continuous process of identifying and implementing operating improvements that will improve and maintain our long-term operating margins. That will be the story for the rest of this year (2023) and into next year (2024).”

Overall INFU ranks 8th on our list of the best small-cap stocks to buy. You can visit 10 Best Small-Cap Stocks to Buy Now According to Minerva Advisors to see the other small-cap stocks that are on hedge funds’ radar. While we acknowledge the potential of INFU as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than INFU but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ ALSO: 7 Best AI Value Stocks That are ‘Money Machines’ According to NYU’s Aswath Damodaran and Analyst Says These 10 Stocks Can Benefit if Donald Trump Wins US Election 2024.

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