After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 750 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of December 31. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPA).
Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPA) was in 20 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of December. LTRPA investors should be aware of a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 23 hedge funds in our database with LTRPA positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that LTRPA isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 32 percentage points since May 2014 through March 12, 2019 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter.
We’re going to take a look at the new hedge fund action regarding Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPA).
What does the smart money think about Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPA)?
At Q4’s end, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -13% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in LTRPA over the last 14 quarters. 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, Eagle Capital Management held the most valuable stake in Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPA), which was worth $85.4 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Hudson Bay Capital Management which amassed $59.3 million worth of shares. Moreover, Empyrean Capital Partners, HBK Investments, and D E Shaw were also bullish on Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPA), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
Seeing as Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPA) has witnessed declining sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there is a sect of fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Ian Cumming and Joseph Steinberg’s Leucadia National cut the largest stake of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $3.5 million in stock, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $2.1 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds by the end of the third quarter.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPA). We will take a look at Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE:DIN), Caleres Inc (NYSE:CAL), Oceaneering International, Inc. (NYSE:OII), and Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to LTRPA’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIN | 20 | 114816 | 1 |
| CAL | 12 | 32329 | -5 |
| OII | 16 | 85020 | 4 |
| GTY | 8 | 82062 | 0 |
| Average | 14 | 78557 | 0 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $79 million. That figure was $329 million in LTRPA’s case. Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE:DIN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPA) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. Unfortunately LTRPA wasn’t nearly as popular as these 15 stock and hedge funds that were betting on LTRPA were disappointed as the stock returned -10% and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
