Should You Buy DIRECTV (DTV)?

If Warren Buffett has held a stock for what seems like infinity, and it’s a major position, should you consider it? Perhaps, but there’s a better way to measure sentiment surrounding DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV).

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of methods market participants can use to watch stocks. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can outclass the market by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, positive insider trading activity is a second way to look at the marketplace. Obviously, there are a variety of incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if you understand where to look (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to analyze the recent info surrounding DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV).

Hedge fund activity in DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV)

At Q2’s end, a total of 47 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 4% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway had the largest position in DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV), worth close to $2.2977 billion, accounting for 2.6% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Mason Hawkins of Southeastern Asset Management, with a $1.5054 billion position; the fund has 7.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Jonathon Jacobson’s Highfields Capital Management, Natixis Global Asset Management’s Harris Associates and Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors.

Now, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Berkshire Hathaway, managed by Warren Buffett, assembled the most outsized position in DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV). Berkshire Hathaway had 2.2977 billion invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Mason Hawkins’s Southeastern Asset Management also made a $1.5054 billion investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new DTV investors: Jonathon Jacobson’s Highfields Capital Management, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, and Peter Rathjens Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

Insider trading activity in DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV)

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time frame, DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also review the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV). These stocks are DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA), Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA), Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC), and Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB). This group of stocks belong to the catv systems industry and their market caps are similar to DTV’s market cap.