Zosano Pharma Corp (ZSAN): Hedge Funds Are Snapping Up

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 821 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards Zosano Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:ZSAN).

Zosano Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:ZSAN) has experienced an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. Our calculations also showed that ZSAN isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are assumed to be underperforming, outdated financial tools of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, Our researchers hone in on the masters of this club, around 850 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors administer most of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing equity investments, Insider Monkey has formulated many investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .

Phill Gross of Adage Capital Management

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, 2020’s unprecedented market conditions provide us with the highest number of trading opportunities in a decade. So we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind let’s view the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Zosano Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:ZSAN).

What have hedge funds been doing with Zosano Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:ZSAN)?

Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 33% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 1 hedge funds with a bullish position in ZSAN 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.

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, holds the number one position in Zosano Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:ZSAN). Adage Capital Management has a $0.6 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Anand Parekh of Alyeska Investment Group, with a $0.2 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers that hold long positions encompass Hal Mintz’s Sabby Capital, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Sabby Capital allocated the biggest weight to Zosano Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:ZSAN), around 0.05% of its 13F portfolio. Alyeska Investment Group is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.0039 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ZSAN.

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Sabby Capital, managed by Hal Mintz, created the most outsized position in Zosano Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:ZSAN). Sabby Capital had $0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Zosano Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:ZSAN). We will take a look at OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN), Shiloh Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:SHLO), Verb Technology Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERB), and Superior Industries International Inc. (NYSE:SUP). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to ZSAN’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 4.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1 million. That figure was $1 million in ZSAN’s case. Superior Industries International Inc. (NYSE:SUP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Zosano Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:ZSAN) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 8.3% in 2020 through the end of May and still beat the market by 13.2 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on ZSAN as the stock returned 74.4% during the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

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