Utah Medical Products, Inc. (UTMD): Hedge Funds Cautiously Watching

In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds think Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD) is a good investment right now. We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research on a given stock. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks among hedge fund investors have historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk attributes. It’s not surprising given that hedge funds have access to better information and more resources to predict the winners in the stock market.

Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the first quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. At the end of this article we will also compare UTMD to other stocks including Tekla Life Sciences Investors (NYSE:HQL), Realogy Holdings Corp (NYSE:RLGY), and International Money Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMXI) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are numerous metrics investors have at their disposal to value their holdings. A pair of the most underrated metrics are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a very impressive margin (see the details here).

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 stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. 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. With all of this in mind we’re going to analyze the new hedge fund action surrounding Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD).

Hedge fund activity in Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards UTMD over the last 18 quarters. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Renaissance Technologies,  holds the most valuable position in Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD). Renaissance Technologies has a $21.8 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Ancora Advisors, led by Frederick DiSanto, holding a $5.9 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Ancora Advisors allocated the biggest weight to Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD), around 0.27% of its 13F portfolio. Royce & Associates is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.04 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to UTMD.

Earlier we told you that the aggregate hedge fund interest in the stock was unchanged and we view this as a negative development. Even though there weren’t any hedge funds dumping their holdings during the first quarter, there weren’t any hedge funds initiating brand new positions. This indicates that hedge funds, at the very best, perceive this stock as dead money and they haven’t identified any viable catalysts that can attract investor attention.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD). We will take a look at Tekla Life Sciences Investors (NYSE:HQL), Realogy Holdings Corp (NYSE:RLGY), International Money Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMXI), and Artesian Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:ARTNA). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble UTMD’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 9.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $47 million. That figure was $33 million in UTMD’s case. Realogy Holdings Corp (NYSE:RLGY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Tekla Life Sciences Investors (NYSE:HQL) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. 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 13.9% in 2020 through June 10th and surpassed the market by 14.2 percentage points. Unfortunately UTMD wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); UTMD investors were disappointed as the stock returned 5.7% during the second quarter and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.

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