Hedge Funds Getting Bullish On Perion Network Ltd (PERI)

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. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 821 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, a week after the market trough. In this article we look at what those investors think of Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI).

Is Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI) a marvelous investment right now? The smart money is taking an optimistic view. The number of long hedge fund positions went up by 1 lately. Our calculations also showed that PERI 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.

To most shareholders, hedge funds are seen as slow, outdated investment tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at present, Our experts look at the masters of this club, about 850 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people oversee most of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by following their best investments, Insider Monkey has found a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per 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 .

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. With all of this in mind we’re going to go over the latest hedge fund action surrounding Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI).

How are hedge funds trading Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI)?

Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 7 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 17% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 1 hedge funds with a bullish position in PERI a year ago. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI), which was worth $10.7 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Private Capital Management which amassed $8.1 million worth of shares. GLG Partners, Two Sigma Advisors, 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 Private Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI), around 2.53% of its 13F portfolio. Navellier & Associates is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.02 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to PERI.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, assembled the largest position in Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI). Citadel Investment Group had $0.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Louis Navellier’s Navellier & Associates also made a $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI) but similarly valued. We will take a look at AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI), Baytex Energy Corp (NYSE:BTE), vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT), and Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd. (NYSE:XIN). This group of stocks’ market valuations match PERI’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 5.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $4 million. That figure was $22 million in PERI’s case. AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Perion Network Ltd (NASDAQ:PERI) 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. 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 13.9% in 2020 through June 10th but beat the market by 14.2 percentage points. Unfortunately PERI wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on PERI were disappointed as the stock returned 18.4% during the same time period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far this year.

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