Hedge Funds Are Crazy About China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (CHL)

Is it smart to be bullish on China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL)?

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of indicators investors can use to watch publicly traded companies. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can trounce the market by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as necessary, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s study the newest info for China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL).

What have hedge funds been doing with China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 6% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the biggest position in China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL). Fisher Asset Management has a $198.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.5% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, which held a $90.4 million position; the fund has 0.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

As aggregate interest spiked, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, created the most valuable position in China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL). Fisher Asset Management had 198.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also initiated a $90.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

What have insiders been doing with China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) 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 China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL). These stocks are Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI), Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV), China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHU), America Movil SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:AMX), and Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD). All of these stocks are in the wireless communications industry and their market caps match CHL’s market cap.