Is TELUS Corporation (USA) (TU) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. TU investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund sentiment recently. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with TU positions at the end of the previous quarter.

At the moment, there are tons of indicators investors can use to watch Mr. Market. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a significant margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, positive insider trading activity is a second way to break down the marketplace. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for an insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a glance at the key action regarding TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU).

What does the smart money think about TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 40% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the largest position in TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU). Renaissance Technologies has a $67.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Forward Management, managed by J. Alan Reid, Jr., which held a $4.2 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have jumped into TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU) headfirst. LMR Partners, managed by Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold, created the most valuable position in TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU). LMR Partners had 4.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also made a $0.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new TU positions are Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

How have insiders been trading TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU). These stocks are China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHU), Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV), Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI), and Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (ADR) (NYSE:MBT). This group of stocks are the members of the wireless communications industry and their market caps resemble TU’s market cap.

With the returns demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s research, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading activity, and TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds