Hedge Funds Are Selling Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (FOLD)

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 867 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of September 30th, 2021. What do these smart investors think about Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD)?

Is Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD) worth your attention right now? Hedge funds were taking a bearish view. The number of long hedge fund positions shrunk by 3 lately. Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD) was in 31 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 38. Our calculations also showed that FOLD isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings). There were 34 hedge funds in our database with FOLD positions at the end of the second quarter.

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV 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. Now let’s review the new hedge fund action surrounding Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD).

Joseph Edelman of Perceptive Advisors

Joseph Edelman of Perceptive Advisors

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

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of 31 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -9% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 38 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in FOLD a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Among these funds, Perceptive Advisors held the most valuable stake in Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD), which was worth $253.6 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Redmile Group which amassed $198.6 million worth of shares. Avoro Capital Advisors (venBio Select Advisor), Palo Alto Investors, and Citadel Investment Group 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 Palo Alto Investors allocated the biggest weight to Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD), around 5.83% of its 13F portfolio. Perceptive Advisors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 3.68 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FOLD.

Judging by the fact that Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD) has faced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there exists a select few hedge funds who sold off their entire stakes in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management dropped the largest investment of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $37.3 million in stock, and James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $28.4 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD) but similarly valued. These stocks are Health Catalyst, Inc (NASDAQ:HCAT), ModivCare Inc. (NASDAQ:MODV), Stepan Company (NYSE:SCL), Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS), SmartRent, Inc. (NYSE:SMRT), Renewable Energy Group Inc (NASDAQ:REGI), and Primo Water Corporation (NYSE:PRMW). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to FOLD’s market valuation.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
HCAT 26 192026 4
MODV 21 564075 -1
SCL 9 14505 -5
PLXS 16 71577 -1
SMRT 15 213813 15
REGI 15 40438 -2
PRMW 31 617009 7
Average 19 244778 2.4

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $245 million. That figure was $834 million in FOLD’s case. Primo Water Corporation (NYSE:PRMW) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Stepan Company (NYSE:SCL) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for FOLD is 76.5. 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. 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 28.6% in 2021 through November 30th and still beat the market by 5.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on FOLD as the stock returned 12.1% since the end of Q3 (through 11/30) 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.