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Is OpGen, Inc. (OPGN) A Good Stock To Buy Now?

In this article we will check out the progression of hedge fund sentiment towards OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN) and determine whether it is a good investment right now. We at Insider Monkey like to examine what billionaires and hedge funds think of a company before spending days of research on it. Given their 2 and 20 payment structure, hedge funds have more incentives and resources than the average investor. The funds have access to expert networks and get tips from industry insiders. They also employ numerous Ivy League graduates and MBAs. Like everyone else, hedge funds perform miserably at times, but their consensus picks have historically outperformed the market after risk adjustments.

Is OPGN a good stock to buy? OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN) has seen an increase in activity from the world's largest hedge funds of late. OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN) was in 3 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 4. Our calculations also showed that OPGN isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). That's why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Ryan Tolkin, CIO of Schonfeld Strategic Advisors

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, an activist hedge fund wants to buy this $28 biotech stock for $50. So, we recommended a long position to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Now let's take a look at the new hedge fund action surrounding OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN).

Do Hedge Funds Think OPGN Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 200% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards OPGN over the last 23 quarters. So, let's examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group has the biggest position in OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN), worth close to $0.2 million, accounting for less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, managed by Ryan Tolkin (CIO), which holds a $0.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Schonfeld Strategic Advisors allocated the biggest weight to OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN), around 0.0015% of its 13F portfolio. Citadel Investment Group is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to OPGN.

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have jumped into OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN) headfirst. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, established the largest position in OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN). Citadel Investment Group had $0.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ryan Tolkin (CIO)'s Schonfeld Strategic Advisors also initiated a $0.1 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new OPGN position is Renaissance Technologies.

Let's also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks - not necessarily in the same industry as OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at CLPS Incorporation (NASDAQ:CLPS), AstroNova, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALOT), HMN Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:HMNF), Weidai Ltd. (NYSE:WEI), Martin Midstream Partners L.P. (NASDAQ:MMLP), Yunhong International (NASDAQ:ZGYHU), and AzurRx BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZRX). All of these stocks' market caps are similar to OPGN's market cap.

[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position CLPS,2,321,-1 ALOT,6,17218,-1 HMNF,3,17961,0 WEI,2,369,1 MMLP,1,26,0 ZGYHU,7,20471,2 AZRX,2,143,1 Average,3.3,8073,0.3 [/table]

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 3.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $8 million. That figure was $0 million in OPGN's case. Yunhong International (NASDAQ:ZGYHU) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Martin Midstream Partners L.P. (NASDAQ:MMLP) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for OPGN is 46.2. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. 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 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 17.2% in 2021 through June 11th and surpassed the market again by 3.3 percentage points. Unfortunately OPGN wasn't nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); OPGN investors were disappointed as the stock returned -13.2% since the end of March (through 6/11) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2021.

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

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