Is Barron’s Bullish Call On American Airlines Group Inc (AAL) Enough To Make It A Buy?

Hedge fund activity in American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 91 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long in this stock, a change of -26% from the end of the fourth quarter. This stat shows that many hedge fund managers opted to move out of this stock in the first quarter and a few hedge fund managers might have sold part of their stake in the stock.

According to Insider Monkey’s database, the largest position in American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) was held by James Dinan‘s York Capital Management with 11.4 million shares valued at $602.2 million at the end of the first quarter. The second largest position in the stock was held by Highland Capital Management, managed by James Dondero, owning close to 6 million shares valued at $315.8 million. In addition, Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management, Stephen Freidheim’s Cyprus Capital Partners, and Tom Wagner and Ara Cohen’s Knighthead Capital were among the other hedge funds with stakes in the stock.

As one might expect many hedge funds had opted to sell out of their stake in the stock entirely during the first quarter. Leading the way wa David Tepper‘s Appaloosa Management, which sold around 4.4 million shares,  valued at $233.5 million. Following David Tepper was Dan Loeb‘s Third Point, which sold around 3.75 million shares, valued at $201.1 million. Other hedge fund managers who sold their stakes in the stock were Zach Schreiber’s Point State Capital, and Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management.

Considering the fact that hedge fund managers like David Tepper and Dan Loeb opted to walk away from American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL)’s stock, and that hedge fund sentiment was strongly negative on the stock, which has had a poor 2015, we don’t recommend a buy on this stock, despite the bullish call from Barron’s Jack Hough.

Disclosure: None