Our extensive research has shown that imitating the smart money can generate significant returns for retail investors, which is why we track nearly 900 active prominent money managers and analyze their quarterly 13F filings. The stocks that are heavily bought by hedge funds historically outperformed the market, though there is no shortage of high profile failures like hedge funds’ 2018 losses in Facebook and Apple. Let’s take a closer look at what the funds we track think about Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) in this article.
Is RYAAY stock a buy? Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) has seen an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) was in 23 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistic is 25. Our calculations also showed that RYAAY isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).
If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at present, Our experts hone in on the top tier of this group, around 850 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors administer the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by following their finest stock picks, Insider Monkey has unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points a year since its inception in March 2017. Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 197% since March 2017 (through March 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by 124 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website .
Israel Englander of Millennium Management
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, auto parts business is a recession resistant business, so we are taking a closer look at this discount auto parts stock that is growing at a 196% annualized rate. We go through lists like the 15 best micro-cap stocks to buy now to identify the next stock with 10x upside potential. 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. Now we’re going to check out the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY).
Do Hedge Funds Think RYAAY Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 44% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 22 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in RYAAY 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.
More specifically, Renaissance Technologies was the largest shareholder of Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY), with a stake worth $283.3 million reported as of the end of December. Trailing Renaissance Technologies was Immersion Capital, which amassed a stake valued at $171.7 million. Lansdowne Partners, Hosking Partners, and Teewinot Capital Advisers 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 Immersion Capital allocated the biggest weight to Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY), around 15.63% of its 13F portfolio. Teewinot Capital Advisers is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 14.02 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to RYAAY.
Now, key money managers have jumped into Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) headfirst. Sandbar Asset Management, managed by Michael Cowley, assembled the largest position in Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY). Sandbar Asset Management had $23.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $11.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new RYAAY investors: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors, and Michael Hintze’s CQS Cayman LP.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY). These stocks are FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT), Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP), Viatris Inc. (NASDAQ:VTRS), MPLX LP (NYSE:MPLX), Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB), Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W), and Etsy Inc (NASDAQ:ETSY). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to RYAAY’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FLT | 44 | 2029777 | 4 |
| CCEP | 28 | 1003000 | 5 |
| VTRS | 67 | 2753638 | 19 |
| MPLX | 13 | 142057 | -1 |
| DB | 16 | 1649538 | 1 |
| W | 40 | 2845135 | 0 |
| ETSY | 56 | 1963085 | 5 |
| Average | 37.7 | 1769461 | 4.7 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 37.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1769 million. That figure was $782 million in RYAAY’s case. Viatris Inc. (NASDAQ:VTRS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand MPLX LP (NYSE:MPLX) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for RYAAY is 46.9. 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. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 12.3% in 2021 through April 19th and surpassed the market again by 0.9 percentage points. Unfortunately RYAAY wasn’t nearly as popular as these 30 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); RYAAY investors were disappointed as the stock returned -3% since the end of December (through 4/19) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.
Follow Ryanair Holdings Plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
