We know that hedge funds generate strong, risk-adjusted returns over the long run, which is why imitating the picks that they are collectively bullish on can be a profitable strategy for retail investors. With billions of dollars in assets, professional investors have to conduct complex analyses, spend many resources and use tools that are not always available for the general crowd. This doesn't mean that they don't have occasional colossal losses; they do. However, it is still a good idea to keep an eye on hedge fund activity. With this in mind, let’s examine the smart money sentiment towards Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE) and determine whether hedge funds skillfully traded this stock.
Is Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE) undervalued? Money managers were becoming hopeful. The number of long hedge fund positions moved up by 5 in recent months. Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE) was in 49 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of June. The all time high for this statistics is 43. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that QURE isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks). There were 44 hedge funds in our database with QURE holdings at the end of March.
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
If you'd ask most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, old investment vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, Our researchers look at the crème de la crème of this club, around 850 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors have their hands on most of the hedge fund industry's total asset base, and by tracking their unrivaled investments, Insider Monkey has revealed a few investment strategies that have historically exceeded the broader indices. Insider Monkey's flagship short hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points a year since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 34% since February 2017 (through August 17th) even though the market was up 53% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Wil Harkey Nantahala Capital
At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost precious metals prices. So, we are checking out this junior gold mining stock.. We go through lists like the 10 most profitable companies in America to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. 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. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. Keeping this in mind let's check out the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE).
How have hedgies been trading Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE)?
At the end of June, a total of 49 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 11% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards QURE over the last 20 quarters. With the smart money's capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Is QURE A Good Stock To Buy?
Among these funds, Nantahala Capital Management held the most valuable stake in Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE), which was worth $70.7 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Avoro Capital Advisors (venBio Select Advisor) which amassed $67.6 million worth of shares. Redmile Group, Point72 Asset Management, and Nantahala Capital 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 Aquilo Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE), around 6.18% of its 13F portfolio. Corriente Advisors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 5.26 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to QURE.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names have jumped into Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE) headfirst. Point72 Asset Management, managed by Steve Cohen, created the largest position in Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE). Point72 Asset Management had $49.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander's Millennium Management also initiated a $12.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Mark Hart III's Corriente Advisors, Richard Mashaal's Rima Senvest Management, and Michael Gelband's ExodusPoint Capital.
Let's go over hedge fund activity in other stocks - not necessarily in the same industry as Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE) but similarly valued. These stocks are Barnes Group Inc. (NYSE:B), Extended Stay America Inc (NYSE:STAY), Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS), PJT Partners Inc (NYSE:PJT), Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPB), Principia Biopharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PRNB), and AssetMark Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AMK). This group of stocks' market values are closest to QURE's market value.
[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position B,19,39170,8 STAY,30,353720,12 NUS,25,240249,7 PJT,21,105078,-1 SPB,26,249356,2 PRNB,26,654270,5 AMK,6,29052,2 Average,21.9,238699,5 [/table]
As you can see these stocks had an average of 21.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $239 million. That figure was $595 million in QURE's case. Extended Stay America Inc (NYSE:STAY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand AssetMark Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AMK) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE) is more popular among hedge funds. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for QURE is 90. 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 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 33% in 2020 through the end of August and still beat the market by 23.2 percentage points. Unfortunately QURE wasn't nearly as popular as these 10 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on QURE were disappointed as the stock returned -9.5% since the end of the second quarter and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.
