Should You Dispose Your ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (ACAD) Position?

Alger, an investment management firm, published its “Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund” first quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. During the quarter, the largest portfolio sector weightings were Information Technology and Health Care. The largest sector overweight was Financials. Class A shares of the Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund underperformed the Russell 2500 Growth Index during the first quarter of 2021. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.

Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund, in their Q1 2021 investor letter, mentioned ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACAD) and shared their insights on the company. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a San Diego, California-based biopharmaceutical company that currently has a $3.3 billion market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, ACAD delivered a -61.24% return, while its 12-month returns are also down by -56.69%. As of April 19, 2021, the stock closed at $20.72 per share.

Here is what Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund has to say about ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. in their Q1 2021 investor letter:

“Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. was among the top detractors from performance. Acadia Pharmaceuticals develops and commercializes small molecule drugs that address unmet medical needs associated with central nervous system disorders. Acadia’s Nuplazid (Pimavansenn) is marketed for treating hallucinations and delusions that accompany Parkinson’ s disease psychosis. Additionally, Nuplazid is being developed to treat hallucinations and delusions related to dementia. The price of Acadia shares fell significantly in response to an FDA notification on March 3 that the agency had identified deficiencies in the drug’ s supplemental new drug application that currently preclude discussion of labeling and post-marketing requirements.”

Our calculations show that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACAD) does not belong in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. was in 38 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 41 funds in the third quarter. ACAD delivered a -61.18% return in the past 3 months.

The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 231.2% between 2015 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 126 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds’ poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Here you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.

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