Will the new coronavirus cause a recession in US in the next 6 months? On February 27th, we put the probability at 75% and we predicted 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 Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU).
Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU) has seen an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. IMMU was in 28 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2019. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with IMMU positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that IMMU isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings and see the video at the end of this article for Q3 rankings).
Today there are a lot of signals stock market investors can use to grade publicly traded companies. Two of the best signals are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can beat the S&P 500 by a superb margin (see the details here).
Jim Tananbaum of Foresite Capital
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, we believe electric vehicles and energy storage are set to become giant markets, and we want to take advantage of the declining lithium prices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. So we are checking out investment opportunities like this one. 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 S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Now we’re going to view the new hedge fund action encompassing Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU).
How are hedge funds trading Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 28 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 27% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 28 hedge funds with a bullish position in IMMU 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, venBio Select Advisor held the most valuable stake in Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU), which was worth $518.4 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Alkeon Capital Management which amassed $60.7 million worth of shares. Foresite Capital, Deerfield Management, and Partner Fund Management 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 Foresite Capital allocated the biggest weight to Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU), around 20.75% of its 13F portfolio. venBio Select Advisor is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 15.22 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to IMMU.
As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Partner Fund Management, managed by Christopher James, created the most valuable position in Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU). Partner Fund Management had $31.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Michael Rockefeller and Karl Kroeker’s Woodline Partners also initiated a $12.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new IMMU investors Renaissance Technologies, Peter Muller’s PDT Partners, and Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU). We will take a look at NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR), Cushman & Wakefield plc (NYSE:CWK), China Biologic Products Inc (NASDAQ:CBPO), and Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR). This group of stocks’ market valuations match IMMU’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCR | 32 | 289779 | -2 |
| CWK | 18 | 216049 | 8 |
| CBPO | 19 | 562285 | 1 |
| HR | 12 | 51401 | -1 |
| Average | 20.25 | 279879 | 1.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 20.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $280 million. That figure was $830 million in IMMU’s case. NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks lost 17.4% in 2020 through March 25th but beat the market by 5.5 percentage points. Unfortunately IMMU wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on IMMU were disappointed as the stock returned -40.5% during the same time period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far this year.
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
