These Stocks Surge but Check Out the Hedge Fund Sentiment before Jumping to Conclusions

Next in line is another healthcare company, GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ:GWPH), which is engaged in the development of a series of cannabinoid drugs. GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ:GWPH)’s stock jumped by some 7% on a volume of 1.12 million shares, compared to an average of 295,000 shares, after the company announced that its Phase 2a clinical trial of Cannabidiol in patients with schizophrenia obtained positive top-line results. The stock is already up by almost 70% since the beginning of the year, which has drawn the attention of investors. At the end of June, 15 funds from our database held long positions in the company, down by two over the quarter, but the value of their aggregate stake of $216.66 million represented around 9% of the company’s outstanding stock. More specifically, among the funds we track, James Flynn’s Deerfield Management held nearly 362,000 shares of GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ:GWPH) at the end of June. Biotech-focused fund VHCP Management also disclosed ownership of 311,900 shares as of the end of the second quarter.

Then there is Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE:OI), whose stock also has advanced by around 6.50% so far today as Bank of America upgraded it to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ and raised the price target to $28.00 from $27.00. The move comes only a day after Credit Suisse lowered its target to $30.00 from $32.00 with an ‘Outperform’ rating. Among the three companies we have covered in this article, hedge funds that we track like Owens-Illinois the most and as of the end of June, 35 investors reported stakes worth $947.97 million in aggregate, which represented almost 26% of the company. These figures went up from 31 funds holding $811.68 million worth of stock in aggregate at the end of March. Among them, Alexander Roepers’ Atlantic Investment Management reported the largest stake in Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE:OI), containing 12.71 million shares worth $291.64 million, amassing over 20% of its equity portfolio. David Einhorn‘s Greenlight Capital disclosed one of the largest new positions in Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE:OI) in the latest round of 13F filings, which contains 4.33 million shares valued at $99.32 million; the stake accounted for 1.30% of Greenlight’s equity portfolio at the end of June.

Disclosure: none