The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 821 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. What do these smart investors think about Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI)?
Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. Our calculations also showed that CEMI 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).
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
According to most market participants, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, old investment tools of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading at the moment, Our experts look at the elite of this group, about 850 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors have their hands on bulk of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by monitoring their finest stock picks, Insider Monkey has deciphered a few investment strategies that have historically outrun the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points a year since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, 2020’s unprecedented market conditions provide us with the highest number of trading opportunities in a decade. So we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Now let’s take a gander at the key hedge fund action encompassing Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI).
Hedge fund activity in Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI)
Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 33% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards CEMI over the last 18 quarters. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were adding to their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack’s Nantahala Capital Management has the largest position in Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI), worth close to $7.3 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which holds a $6 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other members of the smart money that hold long positions encompass Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Manatuck Hill Partners allocated the biggest weight to Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI), around 0.31% of its 13F portfolio. Nantahala Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.27 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CEMI.
As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have jumped into Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI) headfirst. Manatuck Hill Partners, managed by Mark Broach, established the biggest position in Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI). Manatuck Hill Partners had $0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI). We will take a look at Waitr Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:WTRH), Turtle Beach Corp (NASDAQ:HEAR), Culp, Inc. (NYSE:CULP), and Blue Ridge Bankshares, Inc. (NYSE:BRBS). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to CEMI’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| WTRH | 7 | 7128 | -1 |
| HEAR | 10 | 4194 | -1 |
| CULP | 9 | 8619 | 1 |
| BRBS | 1 | 988 | 0 |
| Average | 6.75 | 5232 | -0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 6.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $5 million. That figure was $14 million in CEMI’s case. Turtle Beach Corp (NASDAQ:HEAR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Blue Ridge Bankshares, Inc. (NYSE:BRBS) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below 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 8.3% in 2020 through the end of May and still beat the market by 13.2 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on CEMI as the stock returned 88.1% during the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
