Alkermes Plc (ALKS): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

We at Insider Monkey have gone over 742 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the government. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Alkermes Plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) based on that data.

Alkermes Plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) was in 22 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2016. ALKS shareholders have witnessed a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 25 hedge funds in our database with ALKS holdings at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX), Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB), and The Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ:MIDD) to gather more data points.

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How are hedge funds trading Alkermes Plc (NASDAQ:ALKS)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 22 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, down by 12% from the second quarter of 2016. By comparison, 34 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in ALKS heading into this year. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Neil Woodford’s Woodford Investment Management has the biggest position in Alkermes Plc (NASDAQ:ALKS), worth close to $355 million, corresponding to 14.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is D E Shaw, which holds a $78.3 million position. Some other peers that hold long positions encompass Stephen DuBois’ Camber Capital Management, and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.