money How Hedge Funds Traded Soligenix, Inc. (SNGX) During The Crash
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. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 821 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds' and investors' portfolio positions as of March 31st, a week after the market trough. In this article we look at what those investors think of Soligenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNGX).
Is Soligenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNGX) a healthy stock for your portfolio? Hedge funds are taking a bullish view. The number of long hedge fund positions went up by 1 recently. Our calculations also showed that SNGX 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). SNGX was in 3 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. There were 2 hedge funds in our database with SNGX positions at the end of the previous quarter.
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
Hedge funds' reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn't keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research was 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'll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 36% through May 18th. That's why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
[caption id="attachment_27480" align="aligncenter" width="397"]
Israel Englander of Millennium Management[/caption]
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, legendary investor Bill Miller told investors to sell 7 extremely popular recession stocks last month. So, we went through his list and recommended another stock with 100% upside potential instead. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. You can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here and find out the name of the large-cap healthcare stock that Sio Capital's Michael Castor expects to double. 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. With all of this in mind let's take a peek at the new hedge fund action encompassing Soligenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNGX).
What does smart money think about Soligenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNGX)?
Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 50% from the fourth quarter of 2019. On the other hand, there were a total of 3 hedge funds with a bullish position in SNGX 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.
The largest stake in Soligenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNGX) was held by Knoll Capital Management, which reported holding $1.3 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Renaissance Technologies with a $0.9 million position. The only other hedge fund that is bullish on the company was Millennium Management.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, assembled the biggest position in Soligenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNGX). Millennium Management had $0 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
Let's check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Soligenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNGX). These stocks are Synacor Inc (NASDAQ:SYNC), Vuzix Corporation (NASDAQ:VUZI), Iterum Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ITRM), and TETRA Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:TTI). This group of stocks' market caps match SNGX's market cap.
[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position SYNC,4,6128,-2 VUZI,1,99,-3 ITRM,1,4169,0 TTI,6,2452,-3 Average,3,3212,-2 [/table]
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3 million. That figure was $2 million in SNGX's case. TETRA Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:TTI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Vuzix Corporation (NASDAQ:VUZI) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Soligenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNGX) 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 7.9% in 2020 through May 22nd and still beat the market by 15.6 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on SNGX as the stock returned 25% during the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
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