Repligen Corporation (RGEN): Hedge Funds Taking Some Chips Off The Table

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 821 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. What do these smart investors think about Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN)?

Is Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN) a worthy investment right now? Investors who are in the know are taking a pessimistic view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets fell by 2 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that RGEN isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s monthly stock picks returned 101% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 58 percentage points. Our short strategy outperformed the S&P 500 short ETFs by 20 percentage points annually (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

TUDOR INVESTMENT CORP

Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment Corp

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, 2020’s unprecedented market conditions provide us with the highest number of trading opportunities in a decade. So we are checking out trades like this one. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind we’re going to go over the fresh hedge fund action regarding Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN).

What does smart money think about Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN)?

Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -9% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards RGEN over the last 18 quarters. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Among these funds, 12 West Capital Management held the most valuable stake in Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN), which was worth $113.8 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Marshall Wace LLP which amassed $54.5 million worth of shares. Select Equity Group, Renaissance Technologies, and Impax Asset Management 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 12 West Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN), around 6.78% of its 13F portfolio. Miura Global Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 1.87 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to RGEN.

Because Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN) has experienced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few hedge funds that elected to cut their positions entirely in the first quarter. At the top of the heap, Kevin Molloy’s Iron Triangle Partners said goodbye to the largest investment of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $13.9 million in stock. Michael Kharitonov and Jon David McAuliffe’s fund, Voleon Capital, also sold off its stock, about $7.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds in the first quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE), RealPage, Inc. (NASDAQ:RP), Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE:KGC), and Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR). All of these stocks’ market caps match RGEN’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
HAE 34 710291 1
RP 29 603843 -7
KGC 28 447018 3
PNR 29 391097 3
Average 30 538062 0

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 30 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $538 million. That figure was $322 million in RGEN’s case. Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE:KGC) is the least popular one with only 28 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN) is even less popular than KGC. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 12.2% in 2020 through June 17th but managed to beat the market by 14.8 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on RGEN, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 21.3% during the second quarter (through June 17th) and outperformed the market as well.

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