Here’s What Hedge Funds Think About Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (RCKT)

In this article:

We at Insider Monkey have gone over 738 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds' and investors' portfolio positions as of March 31st. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKT) based on that data.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKT) has experienced a decrease in support from the world's most elite money managers lately. Our calculations also showed that RCKT isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

To most market participants, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, old investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, Our researchers look at the masters of this club, approximately 750 funds. These money managers preside over bulk of the smart money's total capital, and by keeping track of their inimitable stock picks, Insider Monkey has come up with a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Insider Monkey's flagship hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 index by around 5 percentage points annually since its inception in May 2014 through June 18th. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 28.2% since February 2017 (through June 18th) even though the market was up nearly 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 5 short targets in our latest quarterly update and they are already down an average of 8.2% in a month whereas our long picks outperformed the market by 2.5 percentage points in this volatile 5 week period (our long picks also beat the market by 15 percentage points so far this year).

Brad Farber Atika Capital
Brad Farber Atika Capital

Let's take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKT).

What does smart money think about Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKT)?

At Q1's end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -7% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards RCKT over the last 15 quarters. So, let's check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

RCKT_june2019
RCKT_june2019

The largest stake in Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKT) was held by Tang Capital Management, which reported holding $52 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by Adage Capital Management with a $42.1 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Cormorant Asset Management, Bridger Management, and Citadel Investment Group.

Due to the fact that Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKT) has faced a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there lies a certain "tier" of funds who were dropping their entire stakes last quarter. Interestingly, Jacob Doft's Highline Capital Management cut the biggest stake of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $6.1 million in stock, and D. E. Shaw's D E Shaw was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds last quarter.

Let's also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKT). These stocks are Regis Corporation (NYSE:RGS), CymaBay Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CBAY), Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:NCI), and Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI). This group of stocks' market values are similar to RCKT's market value.

[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position RGS,15,293013,3 CBAY,29,407226,2 NCI,15,27692,-2 MCRI,10,130391,0 Average,17.25,214581,0.75 [/table]

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 17.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $215 million. That figure was $212 million in RCKT's case. CymaBay Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CBAY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKT) 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 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 6.2% in Q2 through June 19th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 3 percentage points. Unfortunately RCKT wasn't nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); RCKT investors were disappointed as the stock returned -2.6% during the same time period 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 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in Q2.

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

Related Content

  • How to Best Use Insider Monkey To Increase Your Returns

  • Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Top Dividend Stock Picks

  • 30 Stocks Billionaires Are Crazy About: Insider Monkey Billionaire Stock Index

Advertisement