Hedge Funds Are Selling SAGE Therapeutics Inc (SAGE)

Due to the fact that SAGE Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SAGE) has faced falling interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there were a few hedgies who sold off their full holdings heading into Q4. Interestingly, Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital dropped the biggest stake of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, worth about $5.8 million in stock. Mark Wolfson and Jamie Alexander’s fund, Jasper Ridge Partners, also sold off its stock, about $2.6 million worth of SAGE shares. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as SAGE Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SAGE) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI), ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS), Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS), and Marketo Inc (NASDAQ:MKTO). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble SAGE’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $198 million. That figure was $744 million in SAGE’s case. Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. SAGE Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SAGE) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard OAS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.