Is Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) a healthy stock for your portfolio? Hedge funds are becoming less confident. The number of long hedge fund positions decreased by 2 in recent months.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of gauges investors can use to watch publicly traded companies. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outperform the market by a healthy amount (see just how much).
Equally as important, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are many motivations for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you know what to do (learn more here).
With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a gander at the latest action surrounding Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY).
How have hedgies been trading Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)?
In preparation for this quarter, a total of 32 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -6% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly.
According to our comprehensive database, Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings had the largest position in Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), worth close to $748.7 million, comprising 28% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Viking Global, managed by Andreas Halvorsen, which held a $219.4 million position; 1.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers with similar optimism include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management and Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management.
Judging by the fact that Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has faced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there was a specific group of fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely in Q1. Interestingly, Tony Chedraoui’s Tyrus Capital sold off the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, totaling about $33.9 million in stock.. John Thiessen’s fund, Vertex One Asset Management, also cut its stock, about $22.2 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds in Q1.
Insider trading activity in Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)
Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time frame, Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY). These stocks are Telecom Argentina S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TEO), Neustar Inc (NYSE:NSR), Telecom Italia S.p.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TI), and Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NYSE:LVLT). This group of stocks are the members of the diversified communication services industry and their market caps resemble BBRY’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Telecom Argentina S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TEO) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Neustar Inc (NYSE:NSR) | 17 | 0 | 1 |
| Telecom Italia S.p.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TI) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NYSE:LVLT) | 19 | 1 | 12 |
With the results exhibited by the aforementioned strategies, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is an important part of this process.
