Trading Places: The stocks small cap fund managers were buying and selling this week

Here is Stockhead’s weekly recap of substantial holder transactions among ASX small caps from gold miners to travel agencies.

Substantial shareholders are shareholders holding 5 per cent or more of a company’s shares and these can be directors, individual investors or institutional investors.

Shareholders are required to announce to the exchange when they cross above or below the 5 per cent threshold and any change in their holdings while they remain above 5 per cent.

Buyers

Ian Gandel has been on the board of Alliance Resources (ASX:AGS) since 2003 and he is not going anywhere anytime soon. He now owns 35 per cent of the company and put another $275,000 into the gold explorer in the last week.

A few days after Rural Funds Group (ASX:RFF) rebutted short seller allegations, Daiwa Asset Management took a 5 per cent stake in it. The allegations made the stock fall 40 per cent on the same day but it has been recovering since.

Three fund managers bought into Medibio (ASX:MEB) in the last week: Chelodina Master Fund, Fidelity and Regal Funds Management.

Additionally in gold buys, Regal has become a substantial holder of Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) and hedge fund Maso Capital bought a 6.22 per cent stake in Echo Resources (ASX:EAR).

Even Australia’s largest super fund participated in this week’s gold rush. Australian Super now owns nearly 9 per cent of Orecorp (ASX:ORR).

IOOF became a substantial holder of Sealink Travel Group (ASX:SLK) and 3P Learning (ASX:3PL). It also topped up its stake in PKS Holdings (ASX:PKS) to 6.93 per cent.

When we last checked in on ASX dental stocks Pacific Smiles Group (ASX: PSQ), it had lost 10 per cent in 2019. Since its annual results it now is 19 per cent higher than eight months ago.

One of the recent success stories in the funds space, TDM Asset Management, increased its holdings in Pacific Smiles to 22.8 per cent.

Sellers

Less than two months after departing as CEO, Declan McEvoy sold his entire stake in Flamingo AI (ASX:FGO) which was over 10 per cent.

Opthea (ASX:OPT) is now nearly a billion dollars in market capitalisation a month on from its clinical trial breakthrough.

While the big investment banks including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been looking into the stock, some shareholders are cashing out. BVF Partners cut its stake to 5.25 per cent.

Amaysim (ASX:AYS) fell over 30 per cent last week upon its earnings release and Fidelity reduced its stake to 9.97 per cent.

Regal Funds Management reduced its stake, while remaining substantial holders, in Wiseway Group (ASX:WWG), Ive Group (ASX:IGL) and De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG).