At Insider Monkey, we pore over the filings of nearly 750 top investment firms every quarter, a process we have now completed for the latest reporting period. The data we’ve gathered as a result gives us access to a wealth of collective knowledge based on these firms’ portfolio holdings as of June 28. In this article, we will use that wealth of knowledge to determine whether or not Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND) makes for a good investment right now.
Is Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND) going to take off soon? The smart money is getting less optimistic. The number of long hedge fund bets fell by 5 recently. Our calculations also showed that LIND isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (see the video below). LIND was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2019. There were 20 hedge funds in our database with LIND holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 40 percentage points since May 2014 through May 30, 2019 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 25.7% through September 30, 2019. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Unlike former hedge manager, Dr. Steve Sjuggerud, who is convinced Dow will soar past 40000, our long-short investment strategy doesn’t rely on bull markets to deliver double digit returns. We only rely on hedge fund buy/sell signals. Let’s go over the latest hedge fund action surrounding Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND).
What does smart money think about Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND)?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -25% from the first quarter of 2019. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards LIND over the last 16 quarters. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, ValueAct Capital held the most valuable stake in Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND), which was worth $54.1 million at the end of the second quarter. On the second spot was Highbridge Capital Management which amassed $24.6 million worth of shares. Moreover, Renaissance Technologies, Royce & Associates, and Deep Field Asset Management were also bullish on Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
Due to the fact that Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND) has faced a decline in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there were a few hedgies who sold off their positions entirely by the end of the second quarter. Intriguingly, Richard McGuire’s Marcato Capital Management sold off the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $5.9 million in stock, and Richard McGuire’s Marcato Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $1.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 5 funds by the end of the second quarter.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LIND). We will take a look at M/I Homes Inc (NYSE:MHO), TG Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TGTX), Stamps.com Inc. (NASDAQ:STMP), and Goldman Sachs BDC, Inc. (NYSE:GSBD). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to LIND’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| MHO | 10 | 57559 | -5 |
| TGTX | 17 | 187351 | 0 |
| STMP | 19 | 216258 | -10 |
| GSBD | 1 | 3395 | 0 |
| Average | 11.75 | 116141 | -3.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $116 million. That figure was $190 million in LIND’s case. Stamps.com Inc. (NASDAQ:STMP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Goldman Sachs BDC, Inc. (NYSE:GSBD) is the least popular one with only 1 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. 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 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 24.4% in 2019 through September 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 4 percentage points. Unfortunately LIND wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on LIND were disappointed as the stock returned -6.6% during the third quarter and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
