While the market driven by short-term sentiment influenced by uncertainty regarding the future of the interest rate environment in the US, declining oil prices and the trade war with China, many smart money investors kept their optimism regarding the current bull run in the fourth quarter, while still hedging many of their long positions. However, as we know, big investors usually buy stocks with strong fundamentals, which is why we believe we can profit from imitating them. In this article, we are going to take a look at the smart money sentiment surrounding Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX).
Is Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX) the right pick for your portfolio? Hedge funds are getting less optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund bets retreated by 24 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that AKRX isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
In the eyes of most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as worthless, outdated financial vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, Our researchers choose to focus on the top tier of this club, approximately 750 funds. These investment experts control most of the hedge fund industry's total asset base, and by shadowing their finest equity investments, Insider Monkey has identified numerous investment strategies that have historically outrun the broader indices. Insider Monkey's flagship hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by nearly 5 percentage points a year since its inception in May 2014 through early November 2018. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.5% since February 2017 (through March 12th) even though the market was up nearly 25% during the same period. We just shared a list of 6 short targets in our latest quarterly update and they are already down an average of 6% in less than a month.
We're going to take a look at the key hedge fund action regarding Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX).
What does the smart money think about Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -62% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards AKRX over the last 14 quarters. With hedge funds' sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $14.5 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by Paulson & Co with a $11.1 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Point72 Asset Management, Millennium Management, and Marshall Wace LLP.