Hedge Funds Are Snapping Up Tripadvisor Inc (TRIP)

Hedge funds and other investment firms run by legendary investors like Israel Englander and Ray Dalio are entrusted to manage billions of dollars of accredited investors’ money because they are without peer in the resources they use to identify the best investments for their chosen investment horizon. Moreover, they are more willing to invest a greater amount of their resources in small-cap stocks than big brokerage houses, and this is often where they generate their outperformance, which is why we pay particular attention to their best ideas in this space.

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Is Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) worth your attention right now? Prominent investors are taking a bullish view. The number of long hedge fund positions advanced by three in recent months. TRIP was in 43 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 40 hedge funds in our database with TRIP holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare TRIP to other stocks including Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE), and Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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Today there are a lot of methods stock traders have at their disposal to analyze their stock investments. A pair of the most underrated methods are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Hedge fund experts at Insider Monkey have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid margin (see the details here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action encompassing Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP).

How are hedge funds trading Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 43 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long in this stock, an uptick of 8% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

According to hedge fund intelligence website Insider Monkey, Ricky Sandler’s Eminence Capital had the largest position in Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP), worth close to $191.9 million, amounting to 2.9% of its total 13F portfolio. The second-most bullish hedge fund manager was Jonathon Jacobson of Highfields Capital Management, with a $128.3 million position; his fund had 1.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds with similar optimism included Christopher Lord’s Criterion Capital, David Goel and Paul Ferri’s Matrix Capital Management, and Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers have jumped into Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) headfirst. Highfields Capital Management initiated the largest position in Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP). Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global also made a $91.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new TRIP positions are Bain Capital’s Brookside Capital, George Soros’ Soros Fund Management, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP). We will take a look at Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE), Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG), and Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to TRIP’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
HRS 39 873794 3
CE 30 560713 5
COG 32 456644 6
KSS 29 317518 -4

As you can see these stocks had an average of 32.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $552 million, while in Tripadvisor that figure was $1.01 billion. Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS) is the least popular one, with only 29 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock and sentiment is growing, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.