Hedge Funds Are Buying Yatra Online, Inc. (YTRA)

In this article we will take a look at whether hedge funds think Yatra Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:YTRA) is a good investment right now. We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, unconventional data sources, expert networks, and get tips from investment bankers and industry insiders. Sure they sometimes fail miserably, but their consensus stock picks historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk factors.

Yatra Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:YTRA) has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. YTRA was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with YTRA positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that YTRA isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s monthly stock picks returned 101% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 58 percentage points. Our short strategy outperformed the S&P 500 short ETFs by 20 percentage points annually (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Rishi Bajaj - Altai Capital

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, We take a look at lists like the 10 most profitable companies in the world to identify the compounders that are likely to deliver double digit returns. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. For example we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 in February after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a gander at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Yatra Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:YTRA).

How have hedgies been trading Yatra Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:YTRA)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 13% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 9 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in YTRA a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Is YTRA A Good Stock To Buy?

The largest stake in Yatra Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:YTRA) was held by Altai Capital, which reported holding $5 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by BlueCrest Capital Mgmt. with a $3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included MAK Capital One, MIC Capital Partners, and Weiss Asset Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Altai Capital allocated the biggest weight to Yatra Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:YTRA), around 8.7% of its 13F portfolio. MAK Capital One is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 2.47 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to YTRA.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Ionic Capital Management, managed by Bart Baum, created the most valuable position in Yatra Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:YTRA). Ionic Capital Management had $0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Yatra Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:YTRA). These stocks are Gulf Island Fabrication, Inc. (NASDAQ:GIFI), Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc. (NASDAQ:OBCI), Medallion Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MFIN), and Great Elm Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:GEC). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to YTRA’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
GIFI 8 5351 -2
OBCI 1 575 0
MFIN 4 3000 -1
GEC 7 15496 -1
Average 5 6106 -1

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $6 million. That figure was $13 million in YTRA’s case. Gulf Island Fabrication, Inc. (NASDAQ:GIFI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc. (NASDAQ:OBCI) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Yatra Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:YTRA) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 13.4% in 2020 through June 22nd and still beat the market by 15.9 percentage points. Unfortunately YTRA wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on YTRA were disappointed as the stock returned -23.5% during the second quarter (through June 22nd) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.

Follow Yatra Online Inc.

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