Yahoo Finance Hedge Funds Done Buying Uniqure NV (QURE)?
Before we spend countless hours researching a company, we like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. This is a necessary first step in our investment process because our research has shown that the elite investors' consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE).
Hedge fund interest in Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren't the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds' perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That's why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as BEST Inc. (NYSE:BEST), New Residential Investment Corp (NYSE:NRZ), and Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH) to gather more data points. Our calculations also showed that QURE 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.
So, why do we pay attention to hedge fund sentiment before making any investment decisions? Our research has shown that hedge funds' small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 44 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter. Even if you aren't comfortable with shorting stocks, you should at least avoid initiating long positions in stocks that are in our short portfolio.
[caption id="attachment_341400" align="aligncenter" width="400"]
Samuel Isaly of OrbiMed Advisors[/caption]
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, we are still not out of the woods in terms of the coronavirus pandemic. So, we checked out this successful trader’s “corona catalyst plays“. 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. With all of this in mind let's take a glance at the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE).
How are hedge funds trading Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE)?
At Q1's end, a total of 44 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards QURE over the last 18 quarters. So, let's check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Redmile Group held the most valuable stake in Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE), which was worth $131.6 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Nantahala Capital Management which amassed $81.1 million worth of shares. Avoro Capital Advisors (venBio Select Advisor), Consonance Capital Management, and OrbiMed Advisors 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 9.28% of its 13F portfolio. Prosight Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 5.45 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to QURE.
Seeing as Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE) has faced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there is a sect of funds who sold off their positions entirely last quarter. Intriguingly, Steve Cohen's Point72 Asset Management said goodbye to the largest investment of the "upper crust" of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $40.9 million in stock, and Israel Englander's Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $25.5 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Let's go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE). These stocks are BEST Inc. (NYSE:BEST), New Residential Investment Corp (NYSE:NRZ), Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH), and Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC). 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 BEST,6,10173,-4 NRZ,23,27836,0 VSH,23,266555,3 SFNC,4,2712,-2 Average,14,76819,-0.75 [/table]
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $77 million. That figure was $642 million in QURE's case. New Residential Investment Corp (NYSE:NRZ) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Uniqure NV (NASDAQ:QURE) is more popular among hedge funds. 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 returned 7.9% in 2020 through May 22nd but still managed to beat the market by 15.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on QURE as the stock returned 34.2% so far in Q2 (through May 22nd) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin. Hedge funds were clearly right about piling into this stock relative to other stocks with similar market capitalizations.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
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