Is Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (EWTX) A Good Stock To Buy?

After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 900 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of March 31st. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWTX).

Is EWTX a good stock to buy? Money managers were buying. The number of bullish hedge fund bets improved by 16 recently. Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWTX) was in 16 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. Our calculations also showed that EWTX isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

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Ole Andreas Halvorsen Viking Global

Ole Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, pet market is growing at a 7% annual rate and is expected to reach $110 billion in 2021. So, we are checking out the 5 best stocks for animal lovers. We go through lists like the 15 best Jim Cramer stocks to identify the next Tesla that will deliver outsized returns. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Keeping this in mind let’s analyze the key hedge fund action regarding Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWTX).

Do Hedge Funds Think EWTX Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of March, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 16 from the fourth quarter of 2020. By comparison, 0 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in EWTX a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Among these funds, OrbiMed Advisors held the most valuable stake in Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWTX), which was worth $453.2 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Deerfield Management which amassed $127.8 million worth of shares. Viking Global, RA Capital Management, 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 OrbiMed Advisors allocated the biggest weight to Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWTX), around 4.24% of its 13F portfolio. Logos Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 3.35 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to EWTX.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers have jumped into Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWTX) headfirst. OrbiMed Advisors, initiated the most valuable position in Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWTX). OrbiMed Advisors had $453.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management also made a $127.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, Peter Kolchinsky’s RA Capital Management, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWTX) but similarly valued. We will take a look at LendingClub Corp (NYSE:LC), Enterprise Financial Services Corp (NASDAQ:EFSC), Forterra, Inc. (NASDAQ:FRTA), Cardiovascular Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSII), Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. (NYSE:SWM), Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:VLRS), and Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to EWTX’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
LC 19 264872 1
EFSC 14 42855 0
FRTA 14 201756 -6
CSII 16 125979 -2
SWM 7 11043 -1
VLRS 14 172924 -5
GFF 13 197929 -5
Average 13.9 145337 -2.6

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $145 million. That figure was $1052 million in EWTX’s case. LendingClub Corp (NYSE:LC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. (NYSE:SWM) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Edgewise Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWTX) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for EWTX is 70. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. 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 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 28.5% in 2021 through July 23rd and beat the market again by 10.1 percentage points. Unfortunately EWTX wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on EWTX were disappointed as the stock returned -38.1% since the end of March (through 7/23) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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