Is LIND A Good Stock To Buy Now?

In this article we will check out the progression of hedge fund sentiment towards Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND) and determine whether it is a good investment right now. We at Insider Monkey like to examine what billionaires and hedge funds think of a company before spending days of research on it. Given their 2 and 20 payment structure, hedge funds have more incentives and resources than the average investor. The funds have access to expert networks and get tips from industry insiders. They also employ numerous Ivy League graduates and MBAs. Like everyone else, hedge funds perform miserably at times, but their consensus picks have historically outperformed the market after risk adjustments.

Is LIND a good stock to buy now? Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND) has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND) was in 16 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 20. Our calculations also showed that LIND isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as unimportant, old financial tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at the moment, Our experts look at the elite of this club, about 850 funds. These money managers oversee the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by tracking their finest equity investments, Insider Monkey has formulated a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outrun the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per annum since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 13% since February 2017 (through November 17th) even though the market was up 65% during the same period. We just shared a list of 6 short targets in our latest quarterly update .

Peter Rathjens of Arrowstreet Capital

At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost real estate prices. So, we recommended this real estate stock to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 15 best blue chip stocks to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a peek at the key hedge fund action regarding Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND).

Do Hedge Funds Think LIND Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At third quarter’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -11% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 20 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in LIND a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Deep Field Asset Management, managed by Jordan Moelis and Jeff Farroni, holds the biggest position in Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND). Deep Field Asset Management has a $10.2 million position in the stock, comprising 6.4% of its 13F portfolio. On Deep Field Asset Management’s heels is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $9.1 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish encompass Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group, Leon Lowenstein’s Lionstone Capital Management and Peter Schliemann’s Rutabaga Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Deep Field Asset Management allocated the biggest weight to Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND), around 6.42% of its 13F portfolio. Lionstone Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 2.9 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to LIND.

Since Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND) has experienced a decline in interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers that slashed their full holdings last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Capital dumped the biggest stake of the 750 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling about $38 million in stock. Seth Fischer’s fund, Oasis Management, also cut its stock, about $3.2 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds last quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND) but similarly valued. We will take a look at IRSA Propiedades Comerciales S.A. (NASDAQ:IRCP), Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX), Clarus Corporation (NASDAQ:CLAR), Orchard Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ORTX), Viomi Technology Co., Ltd (NASDAQ:VIOT), KNOT Offshore Partners LP (NYSE:KNOP), and D8 Holdings Corp. (NYSE:DEH). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to LIND’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $52 million. That figure was $49 million in LIND’s case. D8 Holdings Corp. (NYSE:DEH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand KNOT Offshore Partners LP (NYSE:KNOP) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for LIND is 65.2. 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 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10 percentage points. These stocks gained 30.7% in 2020 through December 14th and still beat the market by 15.8 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on LIND as the stock returned 63.7% since the end of Q3 (through 12/14) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.