Do Hedge Funds Love Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (MRVI)?

Last year we predicted the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we told in advance that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI).

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI) investors should be aware of a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI) was in 26 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 34. Our calculations also showed that MRVI isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are several indicators market participants use to appraise their holdings. Two of the less known indicators are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a healthy margin (see the details here). Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 (through May 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 115 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website .

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, economists warn of inflation flare up. So, we are checking out this backdoor gold play that has hit peak gains of 718% in a little over a year. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a peek at the fresh hedge fund action regarding Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI).

Do Hedge Funds Think MRVI Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 26 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -24% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 0 hedge funds with a bullish position in MRVI a year ago. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Select Equity Group held the most valuable stake in Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI), which was worth $164 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Healthcor Management LP which amassed $86 million worth of shares. Marshall Wace LLP, Woodline Partners, and Balyasny Asset Management 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 Healthcor Management LP allocated the biggest weight to Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI), around 3.04% of its 13F portfolio. Parkman Healthcare Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.93 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MRVI.

Due to the fact that Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI) has experienced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of hedgies that slashed their positions entirely in the first quarter. Interestingly, Daniel Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners dumped the largest position of the 750 funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising about $166.3 million in stock, and Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom’s Sectoral Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $27.5 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 8 funds in the first quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI) but similarly valued. We will take a look at BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBIO), Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW), AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU), AbCellera Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABCL), Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (NYSE:JLL), Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX), and Sensata Technologies Holding plc (NYSE:ST). This group of stocks’ market caps match MRVI’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1404 million. That figure was $401 million in MRVI’s case. Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for MRVI is 37.6. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 24% in 2021 through July 9th and beat the market again by 6.7 percentage points. Unfortunately MRVI wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on MRVI were disappointed as the stock returned 8.1% since the end of March (through 7/9) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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