Is Axovant Sciences Ltd (AXON) Worthy of Your Portfolio?

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. QVT Financial created the most outsized position in Axovant Sciences Ltd (NYSE:AXON). Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management also made a $9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new AXON investors: James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management, Hal Mintz’s Sabby Capital, and Zach Schreiber’s Point State Capital.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Axovant Sciences Ltd (NYSE:AXON) but similarly valued. These stocks are BroadSoft Inc (NASDAQ:BSFT), Capital Bank Financial Corp (NASDAQ:CBF), Yirendai Ltd – ADR(NYSE:YRD), and 8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT). This group of stocks’ market values match AXON’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 investors with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $72 million. That figure was $1199 million in AXON’s case. 8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Yirendai Ltd – ADR (NYSE:YRD) is the least popular one with only five bullish hedge fund positions. Axovant Sciences Ltd (NYSE:AXON) 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 8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none