Now, according to many of your fellow readers, hedge funds are perceived as overrated, old investment vehicles of a forgotten age. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds in operation currently, Insider Monkey aim at the elite of this club, close to 525 funds. It is widely held that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by tracking their highest quality stock picks, we’ve discovered a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have trumped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find the details here).
Just as crucial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the world of equities. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if investors know what to do (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s study the latest info for YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF).
How are hedge funds trading YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF)?
Heading into Q3, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -14% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.
Out of the hedge funds we follow, Kenneth Mario Garschina’s Mason Capital Management had the largest position in YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF), worth close to $190.9 million, accounting for 3.8% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jonathon Jacobson of Highfields Capital Management, with a $111.7 million position; 0.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Kevin D. Eng’s Columbus Hill Capital Management, Tom Wagner and Ara Cohen’s Knighthead Capital and Tony Chedraoui’s Tyrus Capital.
Due to the fact YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF) has experienced dropping sentiment from upper-tier hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few fund managers that elected to cut their positions entirely in Q1. Intriguingly, Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital sold off the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, worth close to $53.9 million in stock, and Bruce J. Richards and Louis Hanover of Marathon Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $14.3 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds in Q1.
How have insiders been trading YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF)?
Insider buying is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time frame, YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF). These stocks are Rose Rock Midstream LP (NYSE:RRMS), Petrobras Argentina SA ADR (NYSE:PZE), Sasol Limited (ADR) (NYSE:SSL), EQT Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:EQM), and EnCana Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ECA). This group of stocks belong to the major integrated oil & gas industry and their market caps are similar to YPF’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Rose Rock Midstream LP (NYSE:RRMS) | 0 | 0 | |
| Petrobras Argentina SA ADR (NYSE:PZE) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Sasol Limited (ADR) (NYSE:SSL) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| EQT Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:EQM) | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| EnCana Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ECA) | 22 | 0 | 0 |
Using the returns explained by Insider Monkey’s analyses, average investors should always track hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF) is an important part of this process.
