News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) was in 67 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. NWSA shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. There were 66 hedge funds in our database with NWSA holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
At the moment, there are a multitude of indicators market participants can use to track stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see just how much).
Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are a number of reasons for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).
With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action regarding News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA).
What does the smart money think about News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA)?
At year’s end, a total of 67 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 2% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.
Of the funds we track, Yacktman Asset Management, managed by Donald Yacktman, holds the most valuable position in News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA). Yacktman Asset Management has a $2.046 billion position in the stock, comprising 12.3% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Childrens Investment Fund, managed by Chris Hohn, which held a $876 million position; the fund has 61.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital and Jonathon Jacobson’s Highfields Capital Management.
As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, assembled the biggest position in News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA). OZ Management had 215 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dan Loeb’s Third Point also made a $179 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new NWSA investors: Patrick Degorce’s Theleme Partners, John Thaler’s JAT Capital Management, and Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management LLC.
Insider trading activity in News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA)
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
With the results exhibited by the aforementioned studies, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) is no exception.
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