LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. LNKD was in 45 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of September. There were 50 hedge funds with LNKD positions at the end of the previous quarter. However, there are still a lot of respectable hedge fund managers like Philippe Laffont, Eric Bannasch, Christopher Lord, and Robert Pitts who are bullish about the stock. Should we pay attention to hedge fund activity in LinkedIn though?
In the financial world there are a multitude of tools investors have at their disposal to assess stocks. A duo of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Experts at hedge fund tracking site Insider Monkey have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a significant margin (see the details here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action encompassing LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD).
How have hedgies been trading LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 45 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish in this stock, a change of -10% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Coatue Management, managed by Philippe Laffont, holds the most valuable position in LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD). Coatue Management has a $719.2 million position in the stock, comprising 7.4% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Matrix Capital Management, managed by David Goel and Paul Ferri, which held a $192.2 million position; 10.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other members of the smart money that are bullish contain Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital, Christopher Lord’s Criterion Capital and John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital.
Since LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) has faced a declination in interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of fund managers that elected to cut their positions entirely last quarter. At the top of the heap, Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management said goodbye to the biggest position of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, worth close to $150.5 million in stock, and Panayotis Takis Sparaggis of Alkeon Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $48 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 5 funds last quarter.
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