Hedge Funds Cashed Out Of LiqTech International Inc (LIQT) During The Crash
In this article we will take a look at whether hedge funds think LiqTech International Inc (NYSE:LIQT) is a good investment right now. We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, unconventional data sources, expert networks, and get tips from investment bankers and industry insiders. Sure they sometimes fail miserably, but their consensus stock picks historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk factors.
Is LiqTech International Inc (NYSE:LIQT) a buy, sell, or hold? The best stock pickers are in a pessimistic mood. The number of bullish hedge fund positions went down by 3 recently. Our calculations also showed that LIQT isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
According to most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, old investment tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, Our researchers choose to focus on the moguls of this club, approximately 850 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people shepherd the lion's share of the smart money's total capital, and by keeping an eye on their finest picks, Insider Monkey has revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically surpassed the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey's flagship short hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
[caption id="attachment_193003" align="aligncenter" width="400"]
Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates[/caption]
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, legendary investor Bill Miller told investors to sell 7 extremely popular recession stocks last month. So, we went through his list and recommended another stock with 100% upside potential instead. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. You can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here and find out the name of the large-cap healthcare stock that Sio Capital's Michael Castor expects to double. 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 S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. With all of this in mind let's take a gander at the recent hedge fund action encompassing LiqTech International Inc (NYSE:LIQT).
Hedge fund activity in LiqTech International Inc (NYSE:LIQT)
Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -50% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 4 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in LIQT a year ago. So, let's check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in LiqTech International Inc (NYSE:LIQT) was held by North Run Capital, which reported holding $2.3 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Royce & Associates with a $2.2 million position. The only other hedge fund that is bullish on the company was G2 Investment Partners Management.
Seeing as LiqTech International Inc (NYSE:LIQT) has faced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there were a few hedgies that decided to sell off their positions entirely in the third quarter. Interestingly, Nick Thakore's Diametric Capital dumped the biggest investment of the "upper crust" of funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth close to $0.9 million in stock. Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle's fund, Springbok Capital, also sold off its stock, about $0.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds in the third quarter.
Let's now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to LiqTech International Inc (NYSE:LIQT). We will take a look at Phoenix New Media Ltd ADR (NYSE:FENG), Laredo Petroleum Inc (NYSE:LPI), On Deck Capital Inc (NYSE:ONDK), and Auryn Resources Inc. (NYSE:AUG). This group of stocks' market valuations are similar to LIQT's market valuation.
[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position FENG,6,8742,1 LPI,7,5369,-6 ONDK,15,34014,-2 AUG,1,85,-2 Average,7.25,12053,-2.25 [/table]
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 7.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $12 million. That figure was $5 million in LIQT's case. On Deck Capital Inc (NYSE:ONDK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Auryn Resources Inc. (NYSE:AUG) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. LiqTech International Inc (NYSE:LIQT) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. 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 7.9% in 2020 through May 22nd and still beat the market by 15.6 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on LIQT as the stock returned 44.5% during the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
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