Russian Anxiety, Downgrade Sends Shares of Yandex NV (YNDX) Lower

Although the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 are in the green, Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) is off around $1 or 4.3% in Friday afternoon trading due to the combination of a Wall Street downgrade and Russian jitters. Ratings-wise, Standpoint Research downgraded Russia’s leading search engine to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’, citing the stock’s rally up to this point. While shares of Yandex have been weak recently, they were nevertheless up 13% year-to-date before today, likely leading to some profit taking.

In addition, some traders could be selling Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) due to the recent Syrian news, where the U.S. launched almost 60 cruise missiles against an Syrian air-force base in retaliation for Assad using chemical weapons against his own people. Given that Russia supports Assad, the missile strike could mean the lifting of sanctions against Russia/a general thawing of relations between the U.S. and Russia is further away. If Russian relations with the U.S. sour, sentiment around Yandex, which is Russia’s leading search engine, could head lower.

What Does The Smart Money Sentiment Say?

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Smart money sentiment surrounding Yandex has been stable. Of the 742 elite funds we track, 31 funds owned $316.03 million of Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) and accounted for 4.90% of the float on December 31, versus 31 funds and $389.01 million respectively on September 30.

The Bottom Line

Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) shares are lower due to the combination of Russian anxiety and a Wall Street analyst downgrade. For more reading, check out ‘Top 10 Google Searches in 2015‘.

Disclosure:None