Carnival Corp (CCL): Hedge Funds Are Jumping Ship

Since Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL) has witnessed bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who were dropping their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Michael Hintze’s CQS Cayman LP sold off the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $24.1 million in call options. Ken Griffin’s fund, Citadel Investment Group, also cut its call options, about $12.5 million worth.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL). We will take a look at Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE:CCI), Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ), Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), and Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL). This group of stocks’ market values resemble CCL’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 34 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.78 billion. That figure was $703 million in CCL’s case. Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE:CCI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ) is the least popular one with only 21 bullish hedge fund positions. Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard CCI might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None