Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Apyx Medical Corporation (APYX)

Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the first quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves over the last 4.5 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of Apyx Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:APYX) based on that data.

Is Apyx Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:APYX) a buy here? Prominent investors are getting less bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets were trimmed by 1 lately. Our calculations also showed that APYX 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). APYX was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with APYX holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 58 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 36% through May 18th. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, We take a look at lists like the 10 most profitable companies in the world to identify the compounders that are likely to deliver double digit returns. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. For example we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 in February after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Now we’re going to take a gander at the new hedge fund action regarding Apyx Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:APYX).

Hedge fund activity in Apyx Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:APYX)

Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -10% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 13 hedge funds with a bullish position in APYX a year ago. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

More specifically, Archon Capital Management was the largest shareholder of Apyx Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:APYX), with a stake worth $9.3 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Archon Capital Management was Pura Vida Investments, which amassed a stake valued at $2.5 million. Renaissance Technologies, Horizon Asset Management, and Royce & Associates 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 Archon Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Apyx Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:APYX), around 3.43% of its 13F portfolio. Pura Vida Investments is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.64 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to APYX.

Since Apyx Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:APYX) has witnessed falling interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies that elected to cut their entire stakes heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Thomas Bailard’s Bailard Inc sold off the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $0.1 million in stock, and David Harding’s Winton Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.1 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Apyx Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:APYX) but similarly valued. We will take a look at CyberOptics Corporation (NASDAQ:CYBE), Sequans Communications SA (NYSE:SQNS), NeuBase Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:NBSE), and Fang Holdings Limited (NYSE:SFUN). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to APYX’s market cap.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 5.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $13 million. That figure was $18 million in APYX’s case. CyberOptics Corporation (NASDAQ:CYBE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Fang Holdings Limited (NYSE:SFUN) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Apyx Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:APYX) is more popular among hedge funds. 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 returned 13.4% in 2020 through June 22nd but still managed to beat the market by 15.9 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on APYX as the stock returned 33.1% so far in Q2 (through June 22nd) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin. Hedge funds were clearly right about piling into this stock relative to other stocks with similar market capitalizations.

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