Three Stocks Register Large Gains Today but Hedge Fund Data Suggest You Should Ignore the Hype

The nano-cap healthcare company Signal Genetics Inc (NASDAQ:SGNL), saw its stock open higher in double-digits, but has retracted to around 9% in green later. The growth came on the back of the announcement of a new Master Service Agreement with a “leading biopharmaceutical company” that will allow Signal to deploy its MyPRS test to “inform the clinical stage development program of a novel treatment” (the company provides diagnostic services for physicians involved in the treatment of cancer patients). However, the impact that the new agreement will have on Signal Genetics Inc (NASDAQ:SGNL)’s financials is not clear and so far investors have not been very keen on the stock that has slumped by over 40% since the beginning of 2015. The company was included in the equity portfolios of none of the funds from our database, so it has yet to convince investors regarding its profitability (so far, its loss per share increased to $3.50 last year from $0.88 a year earlier).

The last, but not the least is First Niagara Financial Group Inc. (NASDAQ:FNFG), which has advanced by over 12% so far today on the back of reports that it is exploring its sale and has hired JPMorgan to advise it on a possible transaction. The deal will most likely please the company’s shareholders, some of which have probably foreseen this development as they boosted their positions in the company considerably during the second quarter. Among the three companies discussed today, First Niagara Financial Group Inc. (NASDAQ:FNFG) is the most popular among hedge funds we track, being included in the equity portfolios of 25 of them, which amassed stakes worth $147.60 million, up from $102.78 million held in aggregate by 20 funds at the end of June, although the positions amassed less than 5% of the company at the end of June and the holdings of most investors represent small portions of their equity portfolios. Among these investors, Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management leads the bullish crowd as the fund boosted its stake in First Niagara Financial Group Inc. (NASDAQ:FNFG) by over 50% to 7.65 million shares during the second quarter. Billionaire Englander also has exposure to First Niagara through Millennium’s subsidiary Decade Capital Management, which owns 931,800 shares as of the end of June, up by 14% on the quarter. The second-largest shareholder (after Millennium) is David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, which initiated a stake of 1.51 million shares between April and June.

Disclosure: none