Why Relypsa Inc (RLYP)’s Stock Surged on Friday?

Interestingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management sold off the biggest investment of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $13.7 million in stock. Zach Schreiber’s fund, Point State Capital, also said goodbye to its stock, about $12.8 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 7 funds by the end of the first quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Relypsa Inc (NASDAQ:RLYP) but similarly valued. These stocks are Pacific Premier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:PPBI), Universal American Corporation (NYSE:UAM), Fox Factory Holding Corp (NASDAQ:FOXF), and Gener8 Maritime Inc (NYSE:GNRT). This group of stocks’ market values resemble RLYP’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $135 million. That figure was $196 million in RLYP’s case. Gener8 Maritime Inc (NYSE:GNRT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Fox Factory Holding Corp (NASDAQ:FOXF) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Relypsa Inc (NASDAQ:RLYP) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard GNRT might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None