Is YPF SA (ADR) (YPF) A Good Stock To Buy?

Because YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF) has weathered declining sentiment from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few funds who sold off their positions entirely in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital dropped the largest stake of all the investors studied by Insider Monkey, worth close to $43 million in stock, and David Halpert’s Prince Street Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $16.1 million worth of shares.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF) but similarly valued. These stocks are Lear Corporation (NYSE:LEA), Teck Resources Ltd (USA) (NYSE:TCK), Torchmark Corporation (NYSE:TMK), and National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to YPF’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $565 million. That figure was $360 million in YPF’s case. Teck Resources Ltd (USA) (NYSE:TCK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Torchmark Corporation (NYSE:TMK) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF) is even less popular than TMK. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None