Hedge Funds Are Crazy About QUALCOMM, Inc. (QCOM)

QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) was in 89 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. QCOM investors should be aware of an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. There were 86 hedge funds in our database with QCOM holdings at the end of the previous quarter. This is important to note because earlier today, Canaccord raised its estimates, and price target on the stock.

Credit: QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)

At the moment, there are a multitude of gauges shareholders can use to monitor stocks. A pair of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can beat the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are many incentives for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a peek at the recent action surrounding QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM).

What does the smart money think about QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 89 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 3% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Viking Global, managed by Andreas Halvorsen, holds the biggest position in QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM). Viking Global has a $708.3 million position in the stock, comprising 4.9% of its 13F portfolio. On Viking Global’s heels is Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, which held a $562.7 million position; 1.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Standard Pacific Capital, managed by Douglas Dillard Jr. and Raj D. Venkatesan, established the most valuable position in QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM). Standard Pacific Capital had 53.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also made a $52 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new QCOM positions are John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies, Michael Messner’s Seminole Capital (Investment Mgmt), and Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management.

How are insiders trading QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 16 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM). These stocks are Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS), Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK), Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI), and Ericsson (ADR) (NASDAQ:ERIC). This group of stocks belong to the communication equipment industry and their market caps resemble QCOM’s market cap.

With the results exhibited by the aforementioned strategies, retail investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is no exception.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds