Were Hedge Funds Right About Airbnb, Inc. (ABNB)?

The financial regulations require hedge funds and wealthy investors that exceeded the $100 million holdings threshold to file a report that shows their positions at the end of every quarter. Even though it isn’t the intention, these filings to a certain extent level the playing field for ordinary investors. The latest round of 13F filings disclosed the funds’ positions on December 31st. We at Insider Monkey have made an extensive database of more than 887 of those established hedge funds and famous value investors’ filings. In this article, we analyze how these elite funds and prominent investors traded Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) based on those filings.

Is Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) a healthy stock for your portfolio? Investors who are in the know were taking an optimistic view. A total of 68 hedge funds and prominent investors disclosed bullish Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) positions as of the end of December. This is a very respectable number for a newly public company. Our calculations also showed that ABNB isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).

Chase Coleman of Tiger Global

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. Keeping this in mind let’s check out the recent hedge fund action encompassing Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB).

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

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 68 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 68 from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 0 hedge funds with a bullish position in ABNB 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.

The largest stake in Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) was held by Silver Lake Partners, which reported holding $375.7 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by SCGE Management with a $246.8 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Glade Brook Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management LLC, and Polar Capital. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Glade Brook Capital Partners allocated the biggest weight to Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB), around 100% of its 13F portfolio. Pinz Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 4.06 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ABNB.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds have jumped into Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) headfirst. Silver Lake Partners, managed by Jim Davidson, Dave Roux and Glenn Hutchins, assembled the largest position in Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB). Silver Lake Partners had $375.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Christopher Lyle’s SCGE Management also initiated a $246.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ABNB positions are Paul Hudson’s Glade Brook Capital Partners, Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management LLC, and Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) but similarly valued. These stocks are British American Tobacco plc (NYSE:BTI), Vale SA (NYSE:VALE), Deere & Company (NYSE:DE), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), Mercadolibre Inc (NASDAQ:MELI), and The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX). This group of stocks’ market values match ABNB’s market value.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 56.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3912 million. That figure was $1611 million in ABNB’s case. Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand British American Tobacco plc (NYSE:BTI) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ABNB is 61.6. 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 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 still beat the market by 0.9 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on ABNB as the stock returned 18.9% since the end of Q4 (through 4/19) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

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