After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 750 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms' equity portfolios as of September 30th. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT).
LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money lately. LMAT was in 10 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2019. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with LMAT holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that LMAT isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
5 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
Hedge funds' reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn't keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds' large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the Russell 2000 ETFs by 40 percentage points since May 2014 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that'll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 27.8% through November 21, 2019. That's why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world's largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, "I'm investing more today than I did back in early 2009." So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We also rely on the best performing hedge funds' buy/sell signals. We're going to take a look at the latest hedge fund action encompassing LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT).
What have hedge funds been doing with LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -9% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in LMAT over the last 17 quarters. So, let's review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Is LMAT A Good Stock To Buy?
Among these funds, Citadel Investment Group held the most valuable stake in LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT), which was worth $3 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Renaissance Technologies which amassed $2.3 million worth of shares. Winton Capital Management, AQR Capital Management, and Algert Coldiron Investors 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 Algert Coldiron Investors allocated the biggest weight to LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT), around 0.45% of its 13F portfolio. Weld Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.09 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to LMAT.
Judging by the fact that LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT) has faced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there were a few money managers who were dropping their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Israel Englander's Millennium Management dropped the biggest stake of the 750 funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $7.8 million in stock. Paul Tudor Jones's fund, Tudor Investment Corp, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.3 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds by the end of the third quarter.
Let's check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT). We will take a look at Principia Biopharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PRNB), Genfit SA (NASDAQ:GNFT), Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:AMTB), and Cortexyme, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRTX). All of these stocks' market caps resemble LMAT's market cap.
[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position PRNB,12,196940,0 GNFT,4,19777,-2 AMTB,4,7814,2 CRTX,3,2065,1 Average,5.75,56649,0.25 [/table]
As you can see these stocks had an average of 5.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $57 million. That figure was $12 million in LMAT's case. Principia Biopharma Inc. (NASDAQ:PRNB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Cortexyme, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRTX) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT) 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. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. Unfortunately LMAT wasn't nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on LMAT were disappointed as the stock returned 4.3% during the fourth quarter (through the end of November) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
