Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV) shareholders have witnessed an increase in enthusiasm from smart money lately.
To most stock holders, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, outdated financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we look at the masters of this group, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by watching their best investments, we have figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).
Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. As the old adage goes: there are lots of incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).
With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a glance at the key action surrounding Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV).
How are hedge funds trading Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 40% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially.
When looking at the hedgies we track, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management had the largest position in Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV), worth close to $12.1 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management, with a $6.2 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names have jumped into Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV) headfirst. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, assembled the biggest position in Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV). Renaissance Technologies had 1.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $1.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter.
How have insiders been trading Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV). These stocks are Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (ADR) (NYSE:MBT), TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU), Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI), and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHU). This group of stocks belong to the wireless communications industry and their market caps resemble VIV’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) | 51 | 0 | 3 |
| Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (ADR) (NYSE:MBT) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHU) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s strategies, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV) applies perfectly to this mantra.
