Is Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) a good equity to bet on right now? We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research on a given stock. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks among hedge fund investors have historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk attributes. It’s not surprising given that hedge funds have access to better information and more resources to predict the winners in the stock market.
Is Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) ready to rally soon? The smart money is getting more optimistic. The number of long hedge fund positions went up by 5 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that YNDX isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
To most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, old investment tools of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open today, Our researchers choose to focus on the moguls of this group, around 750 funds. These hedge fund managers oversee bulk of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their best picks, Insider Monkey has revealed a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points a year since its inception in May 2014. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.8% since February 2017 (through November 21st) even though the market was up more than 39% during the same period. We just shared a list of 7 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Unlike the largest US hedge funds that are convinced Dow will soar past 40,000 or the world’s most bearish hedge fund that’s more convinced than ever that a crash is coming, our long-short investment strategy doesn’t rely on bull or bear markets to deliver double digit returns. We only rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. We’re going to check out the new hedge fund action encompassing Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX).
What does smart money think about Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 35 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 17% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 37 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in YNDX a year ago. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, GQG Partners was the largest shareholder of Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX), with a stake worth $107.2 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing GQG Partners was Sachem Head Capital, which amassed a stake valued at $91 million. Light Street Capital, Arrowstreet Capital, and Lakewood 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 Kora Management allocated the biggest weight to Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX), around 13.25% of its portfolio. Prince Street Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 13.06 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to YNDX.
Now, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, created the most outsized position in Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX). Two Sigma Advisors had $44.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Muller’s PDT Partners also initiated a $7.6 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new YNDX positions are Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management, and Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) but similarly valued. These stocks are FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC), InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (NYSE:IHG), Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES), and Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT). This group of stocks’ market valuations match YNDX’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FMC | 36 | 788705 | 0 |
| IHG | 7 | 29788 | 3 |
| WES | 10 | 107648 | 1 |
| TXT | 23 | 658405 | 0 |
| Average | 19 | 396137 | 1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $396 million. That figure was $810 million in YNDX’s case. FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (NYSE:IHG) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on YNDX as the stock returned 19.9% during the fourth quarter (through the end of November) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
