Ryanair Holdings plc (ADR) (RYAAY): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Now, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Farallon Capital, managed by Thomas Steyer, initiated the biggest position in Ryanair Holdings plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RYAAY). Farallon Capital had $42.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also made a $24.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new RYAAY positions are Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Ryanair Holdings plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RYAAY) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Southern Copper Corp (NYSE:SCCO), Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ), Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA), and Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW). This group of stocks’ market values match RYAAY’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 31.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1104 million. That figure was $458 million in RYAAY’s case. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Southern Copper Corp (NYSE:SCCO) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Ryanair Holdings plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RYAAY) 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 EA might be a better candidate to consider a long position.