Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (MRKR): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the March quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge fund investors experienced strong gains on the back of a strong market performance, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain the desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRKR).

Is Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRKR) ready to rally soon? The best stock pickers were in a bullish mood. The number of bullish hedge fund positions improved by 1 lately. Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRKR) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 10. Our calculations also showed that MRKR isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings). There were 5 hedge funds in our database with MRKR holdings at the end of December.

So, why do we pay attention to hedge fund sentiment before making any investment decisions? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We have been able to outperform the passive index funds by tracking the moves of corporate insiders and hedge funds, and we believe small investors can benefit a lot from reading hedge fund investor letters and 13F filings.

Michael Gelband of ExodusPoint Capital

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, an activist hedge fund owns nearly 40% of this $24 biotech stock and is trying to buy the rest for around $50. So, we recommended a long position to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. 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 recent hedge fund action surrounding Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRKR).

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

At first quarter’s end, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 20% from the fourth quarter of 2020. On the other hand, there were a total of 5 hedge funds with a bullish position in MRKR a year ago. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

More specifically, Millennium Management was the largest shareholder of Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRKR), with a stake worth $0.5 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing Millennium Management was Citadel Investment Group, which amassed a stake valued at $0.4 million. Two Sigma Advisors, Citadel Investment Group, and CaaS Capital 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 CaaS Capital allocated the biggest weight to Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRKR), around 0.0012% of its 13F portfolio. Two Sigma Advisors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.0009 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MRKR.

Now, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, assembled the largest position in Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRKR). Two Sigma Advisors had $0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Frank Fu’s CaaS Capital also initiated a $0.1 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRKR) but similarly valued. These stocks are Satsuma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:STSA), Farmer Brothers Co. (NASDAQ:FARM), Permian Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE:PBT), Abeona Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ABEO), Strongbridge Biopharma plc (NASDAQ:SBBP), Cumulus Media Inc (NASDAQ:CMLS), and SWK Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SWKH). This group of stocks’ market caps match MRKR’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
STSA 14 85819 4
FARM 10 27532 -3
PBT 3 1457 1
ABEO 7 16688 -4
SBBP 11 24078 -2
CMLS 9 31704 0
SWKH 3 151366 0
Average 8.1 48378 -0.6

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 8.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $48 million. That figure was $1 million in MRKR’s case. Satsuma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:STSA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Permian Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE:PBT) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRKR) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for MRKR is 37.6. 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 19.3% in 2021 through June 25th and still beat the market by 4.8 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on MRKR as the stock returned 39.7% since the end of the first quarter (through 6/25) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

Follow Marker Therapeutics Inc. (OTCMKTS:MRKR)

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