Hedge Funds Are Abandoing Pain Therapeutics, Inc. (PTIE)

Judging by the fact that Pain Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTIE) has faced a declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there were a few funds that decided to sell off their full holdings in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments dumped the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $0.1 million in stock. Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s fund, LMR Partners, also dropped its stock, about $0.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Pain Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTIE) but similarly valued. These stocks are OHR Pharmaceutical Inc (NASDAQ:OHRP), Demand Media Inc (NYSE:DMD), Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd (NASDAQ:GLMD), and Caladrius Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CLBS). This group of stocks’ market valuations is closest to Pain Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTIE)’s market valuation.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $7 million. That figure was $23 million in Pain Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTIE)’s case. Demand Media Inc (NYSE:DMD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Caladrius Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CLBS) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Even though Pain Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTIE) is not the most popular stock in this group, we can’t ignore hedge fund interest, which is still above average. However, we think that it’s better to invest in stocks that hedge funds are collectively more bullish on, such as Demand Media Inc (NYSE:DMD), in this particular group.