How are hedge funds trading Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)?
Heading into 2016, a total of 108 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a 1% dip from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially (or had already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Lansdowne Partners, managed by Alex Snow, holds the number one position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL). Lansdowne Partners has a $1.32 billion position in the stock, comprising 9.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro of PAR Capital Management, with a $776.4 million position; 14.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management, David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP, and Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management.
Due to the fact that Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) experienced falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of money managers who were dropping their entire stakes last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that James Dinan’s York Capital Management dumped the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at about $46.7 million in call options underlying Delta shares, while Mike Masters’ Masters Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $44.9 million worth of shares. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 fund last quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL). These stocks are Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), ABB Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:ABB), Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP), and LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE:LYB). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble DAL’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAT | 31 | 997526 | -9 |
| ABB | 11 | 210992 | 2 |
| ADP | 28 | 783892 | -4 |
| LYB | 55 | 3173256 | -2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 31 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.29 billion. That figure was $7.86 million in DAL’s case. LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE:LYB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand ABB Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:ABB) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are very fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, and that analysts are also in unanimous agreement about its potential, it may be a good idea to analyze it in further detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.
