Out of thousands of stocks that are currently traded on the market, it is difficult to identify those that will really generate strong returns. Hedge funds and institutional investors spend millions of dollars on analysts with MBAs and PhDs, who are industry experts and well connected to other industry and media insiders on top of that. Individual investors can piggyback the hedge funds employing these talents and can benefit from their vast resources and knowledge in that way. We analyze quarterly 13F filings of nearly 750 hedge funds and, by looking at the smart money sentiment that surrounds a stock, we can determine whether it has the potential to beat the market over the long-term. Therefore, let’s take a closer look at what smart money thinks about Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS).
Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. Our calculations also showed that ADXS isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are seen as worthless, outdated investment vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation today, Our experts hone in on the masters of this club, about 750 funds. These investment experts direct most of the smart money’s total asset base, and by keeping track of their first-class equity investments, Insider Monkey has formulated a few investment strategies that have historically surpassed Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outrun the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in May 2014. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.8% since February 2017 (through November 21st) even though the market was up more than 39% during the same period. We just shared a list of 7 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Phill Gross of Adage Capital Management
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Discover is offering this insane cashback card, so we look into shorting the stock. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We even check out this option genius’ weekly trade ideas. This December, we recommended Adams Energy as a one-way bet based on an under-the-radar fund manager’s investor letter and the stock already gained 20 percent. With all of this in mind we’re going to view the key hedge fund action encompassing Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS).
How have hedgies been trading Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2019, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 50% from the second quarter of 2019. By comparison, 8 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in ADXS a year ago. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS), which was worth $0.5 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Sabby Capital which amassed $0.4 million worth of shares. DAFNA Capital Management, Adage Capital Management, and D E Shaw 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 Sabby Capital allocated the biggest weight to Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS), around 0.22% of its 13F portfolio. DAFNA Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.03 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ADXS.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds have jumped into Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS) headfirst. DAFNA Capital Management, managed by Nathan Fischel, created the largest position in Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS). DAFNA Capital Management had $0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $0 million investment in the stock during the quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS). These stocks are Reebonz Holding Limited (NASDAQ:RBZ), Blonder Tongue Labs, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:BDR), TSR, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSRI), and Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:TNXP). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to ADXS’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RBZ | 1 | 13 | 0 |
| BDR | 1 | 47 | -1 |
| TSRI | 1 | 240 | 0 |
| TNXP | 1 | 123 | 0 |
| Average | 1 | 106 | -0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $0 million. That figure was $1 million in ADXS’s case. Reebonz Holding Limited (NASDAQ:RBZ) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Reebonz Holding Limited (NASDAQ:RBZ) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on ADXS as the stock returned 94% during the first two months of Q4 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.
