150% Surge in Smart Money Ownership of Versartis Inc (VSAR): What Have They Discovered?

With general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have been driving this optimism. Ardsley Partners, led by Philip Hempleman, created the most valuable position in Versartis Inc (NASDAQ:VSAR). Ardsley Partners had $3.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group also made a $2.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Hal Mintz’s Sabby Capital, Behzad Aghazadeh’s venBio Select Advisor, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Versartis Inc (NASDAQ:VSAR). These stocks are Casella Waste Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST), NMI Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NMIH), DICE HOLDINGS, INC. (NYSE:DHX), and Flexion Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FLXN). This group of stocks’ market valuations match VSAR’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $79 million. That figure was $123 million in VSAR’s case. NMI Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NMIH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Flexion Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FLXN) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Versartis Inc (NASDAQ:VSAR) 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 NMIH might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None