A whopping number of 13F filings filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on ProQR Therapeutics NV (NASDAQ:PRQR).
Is ProQR Therapeutics NV (NASDAQ:PRQR) a buy here? The biotech stock is 65% down year-to-date and the smart money is getting less optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund positions among the funds we track dropped by 2 lately. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost or drop in popularity, but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Regulus Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RGLS), First Defiance Financial (NASDAQ:FDEF), and Versartic Inc (NASDAQ:VSAR) to gather more data points.
According to most traders, hedge funds are perceived as slow, old financial tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open today, Our researchers look at the upper echelon of this group, about 700 funds. These money managers preside over the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by monitoring their finest equity investments, Insider Monkey has come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per year for a decade in their back tests.
Keeping this in mind, let’s analyze the fresh action encompassing ProQR Therapeutics NV (NASDAQ:PRQR).
What does the smart money think about ProQR Therapeutics NV (NASDAQ:PRQR)?
At the Q3’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a fall of 13% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, OrbiMed Advisors, managed by Samuel Isaly, holds the biggest position in ProQR Therapeutics NV (NASDAQ:PRQR). OrbiMed Advisors has a $26.8 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. On OrbiMed Advisors’s heels is Baker Bros. Advisors, led by Julian Baker and Felix Baker, holding a $14.4 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. The remaining professional money managers that hold long positions include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Jeremy Green’s Redmile Group, and Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global.
Seeing as ProQR Therapeutics NV (NASDAQ:PRQR) has faced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedgies that slashed their positions entirely in the third quarter. Interestingly, Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital dumped the largest investment of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $0.9 million in stock, and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.2 million worth of stock. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to ProQR Therapeutics NV (NASDAQ:PRQR). We will take a look at Regulus Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RGLS), First Defiance Financial (NASDAQ:FDEF), Versartic Inc (NASDAQ:VSAR), and Everi Holdings Inc (NYSE:EVRI). This group of stocks’ market values match PRQR’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RGLS | 13 | 46409 | -1 |
| FDEF | 10 | 22421 | 1 |
| VSAR | 12 | 110250 | 2 |
| EVRI | 16 | 98144 | -6 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $69 million. That figure was $86 million in PRQR’s case. Everi Holdings Inc (NYSE:EVRI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand First Defiance Financial (NASDAQ:FDEF) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. ProQR Therapeutics NV (NASDAQ:PRQR) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard EVRI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.