Bullish Hedge Fund Alert: Skechers USA Inc (SKX), Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (CLDX), Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. (MPWR) & More

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We track 13D and 13G filings from hedge funds, which are filed after a fund acquires a 5% stake in a company (or after making significant changes to their position). While these filings only apply to one company at a time, and so are much less comprehensive than the quarterly 13F filings which we use to develop investing strategies (we have found, for example, that the most popular small cap stocks among hedge funds outperform the S&P 500 by an average of 18 percentage points per year), they are filed fairly quickly after a fund buys stock. We think that it can be wise not to blindly imitate these purchases but to review which stocks funds like and do further research on any which seem like good values. Here are five stocks which hedge funds have bought recently:

Billionaire Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors disclosed ownership of more than 2 million shares of Skechers USA Inc (NYSE:SKX), up from about 550,000 shares in the fund’s portfolio at the beginning of January (see Cohen’s stock picks from SAC’s 13F). The footwear company’s sales slid slightly for the year as a whole, though in its most recent quarterly report revenue grew strongly compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. Currently Skechers USA Inc (NYSE:SKX) does look expensive in terms of its trailing earnings; Wall Street analyst forecasts imply a forward P/E of only 15, which would cut down on the amount of growth needed to make it a value stock, but the company has to hit those targets first.

Steven CohenCohen and his team were also buying Celldex Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CLDX), a $960 million market cap biotechnology company (on average, over 1.7 million shares are traded per day so particularly with a stock price of about $12 there is plenty of dollar volume for most investors). As a development stage drug developer, Celldex Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CLDX) is not expected to earn profits this year or next year, but the stock is up over 150% in the last year as the market becomes more optimistic about the company’s products. We would note that the most recent data shows that 12% of the float is held short.

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