In this article we will analyze whether Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) is a good investment right now by following the lead of some of the best investors in the world and piggybacking their ideas. There’s no better way to get these firms’ immense resources and analytical capabilities working for us than to follow their lead into their best ideas. While not all of these picks will be winners, our research shows that these picks historically outperformed the market by double digits annually.
Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest recently. Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) was in 87 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 86. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that EXPE isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).
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Daniel Sundheim of D1 Capital
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Do Hedge Funds Think EXPE Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At Q2’s end, a total of 87 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 1% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 61 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in EXPE a year ago. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, D1 Capital Partners held the most valuable stake in Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE), which was worth $1235 million at the end of the second quarter. On the second spot was Melvin Capital Management which amassed $1019.1 million worth of shares. PAR Capital Management, Alkeon Capital Management, and Melvin Capital Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position PAR Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE), around 15.4% of its 13F portfolio. Tiger Legatus Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 10.45 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to EXPE.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Melvin Capital Management, managed by Gabriel Plotkin, initiated the most outsized call position in Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE). Melvin Capital Management had $376.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Renaissance Technologies also made a $97.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new EXPE positions are Leon Shaulov’s Maplelane Capital, David Fiszel’s Honeycomb Asset Management, and Leon Shaulov’s Maplelane Capital.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE). We will take a look at International Paper Company (NYSE:IP), Baker Hughes Company (NYSE:BKR), AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE:ABC), Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK), Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV), and McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to EXPE’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| IP | 31 | 209500 | -5 |
| BKR | 40 | 1012638 | -2 |
| ABC | 43 | 1005836 | 0 |
| SPLK | 47 | 1185992 | 6 |
| CAJ | 8 | 53729 | -1 |
| FTV | 31 | 2235231 | 4 |
| MKC | 34 | 2032436 | -1 |
| Average | 33.4 | 1105052 | 0.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 33.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1105 million. That figure was $5922 million in EXPE’s case. Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) is more popular among hedge funds. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for EXPE is 86. 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. 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 24.1% in 2021 through September 20th and still beat the market by 6.9 percentage points. Unfortunately EXPE wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on EXPE were disappointed as the stock returned -6.2% since the end of the second quarter (through 9/20) 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 since 2019.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
