Is Tripadvisor Inc (TRIP) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) was in 41 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. TRIP investors should be aware of a decrease in hedge fund interest recently. There were 48 hedge funds in our database with TRIP holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

To the average investor, there are a multitude of methods market participants can use to monitor publicly traded companies. A pair of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can outperform the market by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are many motivations for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if you understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a look at the recent action encompassing Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP).

How have hedgies been trading Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 41 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -15% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

Of the funds we track, Lone Pine Capital, managed by Stephen Mandel, holds the biggest position in Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP). Lone Pine Capital has a $341.5 million position in the stock, comprising 1.8% of its 13F portfolio. On Lone Pine Capital’s heels is Alan Fournier of Pennant Capital Management, with a $230.3 million position; the fund has 4.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish include Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management, Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management and Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management.

Because Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) has faced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there were a few fund managers who sold off their full holdings in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners dumped the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds we track, totaling close to $95.3 million in stock.. Patrick McCormack’s fund, Tiger Consumer Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $64.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 7 funds in Q1.

Insider trading activity in Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP)

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP). These stocks are AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL), IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI), Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN), Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM), and Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX). All of these stocks are in the internet information providers industry and their market caps match TRIP’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by our tactics, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) is no exception.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds