The financial regulations require hedge funds and wealthy investors that exceeded the $100 million holdings threshold to file a report that shows their positions at the end of every quarter. Even though it isn’t the intention, these filings to a certain extent level the playing field for ordinary investors. The latest round of 13F filings disclosed the funds’ positions on March 31st. We at Insider Monkey have made an extensive database of more than 866 of those established hedge funds and famous value investors’ filings. In this article, we analyze how these elite funds and prominent investors traded Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEPA) based on those filings.
Is HEPA stock a good buy? Hedge fund interest in Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEPA) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. Our calculations also showed that HEPA isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings). At the end of this article we will also compare HEPA to other stocks including Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. (NYSE:NM), Orgenesis Inc. (NASDAQ:ORGS), and United Security Bancshares (NASDAQ:UBFO) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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David Siegel of Two Sigma Advisors
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Do Hedge Funds Think HEPA Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
Heading into the second quarter of 2021, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the fourth quarter of 2020. By comparison, 1 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in HEPA a year ago. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Sabby Capital, managed by Hal Mintz, holds the number one position in Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEPA). Sabby Capital has a $0.6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, with a $0.3 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions consist of John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Sabby Capital allocated the biggest weight to Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEPA), around 0.11% of its 13F portfolio. Two Sigma Advisors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.0006 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to HEPA.
Because Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEPA) has faced a decline in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that elected to cut their entire stakes last quarter. Interestingly, Orin Hirschman’s AIGH Investment Partners sold off the biggest stake of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $2 million in stock. Ryan Tolkin (CIO)’s fund, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, also cut its stock, about $0.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEPA) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. (NYSE:NM), Orgenesis Inc. (NASDAQ:ORGS), United Security Bancshares (NASDAQ:UBFO), Radcom Ltd. (NASDAQ:RDCM), ACRES Commercial Realty Corp. (NYSE:ACR), Grindrod Shipping Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRIN), and Northern Technologies International Corp (NASDAQ:NTIC). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to HEPA’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NM | 5 | 8952 | 4 |
| ORGS | 3 | 1715 | 1 |
| UBFO | 2 | 1717 | -1 |
| RDCM | 3 | 10000 | 0 |
| ACR | 5 | 16149 | -4 |
| GRIN | 2 | 8427 | 1 |
| NTIC | 3 | 8102 | -2 |
| Average | 3.3 | 7866 | -0.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 3.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $8 million. That figure was $1 million in HEPA’s case. Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. (NYSE:NM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand United Security Bancshares (NASDAQ:UBFO) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEPA) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for HEPA is 68.3. 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. 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 17.2% in 2021 through June 11th and still beat the market by 3.3 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on HEPA as the stock returned 16.3% since the end of Q1 (through 6/11) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.