Is Synthetic Biologics Inc (SYN) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

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Hedge fund managers like David Einhorn, Dan Loeb, or Carl Icahn became billionaires through reaping large profits for their investors, which is why piggybacking their stock picks may provide us with significant returns as well. Many hedge funds, like Paul Singer’s Elliott Management, are pretty secretive, but we can still get some insights by analyzing their quarterly 13F filings. One of the most fertile grounds for large abnormal returns is hedge funds’ most popular small-cap picks, which are not so widely followed and often trade at a discount to their intrinsic value. In this article we will check out hedge fund activity in another small-cap stock: Synthetic Biologics Inc (NYSEAMEX:SYN).

Synthetic Biologics Inc (NYSEAMEX:SYN) has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. SYN was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 4 hedge funds in our database with SYN positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare SYN to other stocks including NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS), Nivalis Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NVLS), and Preformed Line Products Company (NASDAQ:PLPC) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Follow Theriva Biologics Inc. (NYSEMKT:TOVX)

If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, old financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading at the moment, Our researchers look at the elite of this group, approximately 700 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people orchestrate most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by keeping track of their first-class investments, Insider Monkey has uncovered a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outrun the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points a year for a decade in their back tests.

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to review the recent action surrounding Synthetic Biologics Inc (NYSEAMEX:SYN).

What does the smart money think about Synthetic Biologics Inc (NYSEAMEX:SYN)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 50% from the second quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Marc Lisker, Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan’s MSDC Management has the number one position in Synthetic Biologics Inc (NYSEAMEX:SYN), worth close to $9.6 million, amounting to 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Knoll Capital Management, managed by Fred Knoll, which holds an $8.5 million position; the fund has 3.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions encompass Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

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