Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (CRBP): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the first quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves over the last 4.5 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP) based on that data and determine whether they were really smart about the stock.

Is Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP) the right pick for your portfolio? The best stock pickers were taking a bullish view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets increased by 2 recently. Our calculations also showed that CRBP isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks). CRBP was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with CRBP holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

In today’s marketplace there are dozens of methods shareholders put to use to appraise stocks. A pair of the less known methods are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a healthy margin (see the details here).

Bruce Kovner, Caxton Associates LP

Bruce Kovner of Caxton Associates LP

At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. There is a lot of volatility in the markets and this presents amazing investment opportunities from time to time. For example, this trader claims to deliver juiced up returns with one trade a week, so we are checking out his highest conviction idea. A second trader claims to score lucrative profits by utilizing a “weekend trading strategy”, so we look into his strategy’s picks. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We recently recommended several stocks partly inspired by legendary Bill Miller’s investor letter. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 in February after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Now we’re going to take a peek at the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP).

Hedge fund activity in Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 25% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 9 hedge funds with a bullish position in CRBP a year ago. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Is CRBP A Good Stock To Buy?

Among these funds, Knoll Capital Management held the most valuable stake in Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP), which was worth $26.4 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Citadel Investment Group which amassed $7.2 million worth of shares. D E Shaw, DAFNA Capital Management, and Marshall Wace LLP were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Knoll Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP), around 24.84% of its 13F portfolio. DAFNA Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 1.63 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CRBP.

Consequently, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Marshall Wace LLP, managed by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, created the biggest position in Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP). Marshall Wace LLP had $1.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Efrem Kamen’s Pura Vida Investments also initiated a $0.6 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CRBP investors: Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP, and Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP). These stocks are Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC), Cue Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:CUE), UroGen Pharma Ltd. (NASDAQ:URGN), and Ready Capital Corporation (NYSE:RC). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to CRBP’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
FFIC 9 29736 0
CUE 14 111721 3
URGN 7 36342 -1
RC 9 16399 -2
Average 9.75 48550 0

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 9.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $49 million. That figure was $47 million in CRBP’s case. Cue Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:CUE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand UroGen Pharma Ltd. (NASDAQ:URGN) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 12.3% in 2020 through June 30th but still beat the market by 15.5 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on CRBP as the stock returned 60.1% in Q2 and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.