The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the June quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge fund investors experienced strong gains on the back of a strong market performance, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain the desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE).
Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) was in 87 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of June. The all time high for this statistic is 86. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that EXPE isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 79 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Daniel Sundheim of D1 Capital
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. Recently we came across a high growth stock that has tons of hidden assets and is trading at an extremely cheap valuation. We go through lists like the 10 best growth stocks to buy to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. 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 homepage. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a look at the latest hedge fund action surrounding Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE).
Do Hedge Funds Think EXPE Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 87 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 1% from the first quarter of 2020. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards EXPE over the last 24 quarters. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, D1 Capital Partners was the largest shareholder of Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE), with a stake worth $1235 million reported as of the end of June. Trailing D1 Capital Partners was Melvin Capital Management, which amassed a stake valued at $1019.1 million. PAR Capital Management, Alkeon Capital Management, and Melvin Capital Management 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 PAR Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE), around 15.4% of its 13F portfolio. Tiger Legatus Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 10.45 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to EXPE.
Consequently, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Melvin Capital Management, managed by Gabriel Plotkin, established the biggest call position in Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE). Melvin Capital Management had $376.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Renaissance Technologies also made a $97.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Leon Shaulov’s Maplelane Capital, David Fiszel’s Honeycomb Asset Management, and Leon Shaulov’s Maplelane Capital.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) but similarly valued. We will take a look at International Paper Company (NYSE:IP), Baker Hughes Company (NYSE:BKR), AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE:ABC), Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK), Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV), and McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble EXPE’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| IP | 31 | 209500 | -5 |
| BKR | 40 | 1012638 | -2 |
| ABC | 43 | 1005836 | 0 |
| SPLK | 47 | 1185992 | 6 |
| CAJ | 8 | 53729 | -1 |
| FTV | 31 | 2235231 | 4 |
| MKC | 34 | 2032436 | -1 |
| Average | 33.4 | 1105052 | 0.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 33.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1105 million. That figure was $5922 million in EXPE’s case. Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) is more popular among hedge funds. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for EXPE is 86. 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 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 26.3% in 2021 through October 29th and still beat the market by 2.3 percentage points. Unfortunately EXPE wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on EXPE were disappointed as the stock returned 0.4% since the end of the second quarter (through 10/29) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.
Follow Expedia Group Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
