Thursday's Hedge Fund Moves: A Look At Small & Micro-Caps

Many investors consider tracking hedge fund moves central to their strategy.

So, let’s take a look at Thursday’s most relevant transactions involving small-cap companies.

The largest company featured in this article is a $2 billion market cap specialty chemicals manufacturer: Olin Corporation OLN.

Shares of the company fell more than 2.7 percent on Thursday trading, despite the fact that Steven Cohen’s Point72 added 3,832,254 shares to its holdings, which now amount to 4,060,154 shares, or 5.2 percent of the shares outstanding. It should be noted that this stake has an activist nature.

Another small-cap that tumbled on Thursday in spite of a hedge fund betting on it was Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc PTX.

Although Steven Boyd’s Armistice Capital started a new –passive- position in the company with 3.4 million shares, which represent 5.7 percent of the total shares outstanding, the stock fell 3.63 percent over the day.

Also betting on Pernix is the Athyrium Opportunities Fund, which has been consistently boosting its exposure to the pharmaceutical company over the past couple of months. According to its latest filing, its activist stake comprised 4,917,221 shares as of late-June.

Finally, there’s a micro-cap bank holding company: Community Bankers Trust Corp. ESXB.

The owner of Essex Bank saw Emanuel J. Friedman’s EJF Capital increase its wage by 53.6 percent recently, to 1,628,288 shares, or 7.5 percent of the outstanding stock – according to a 13G filed Thursday.

Shares of Community Bankers rose 1.4 percent on Thursday trading.