In the eyes of most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we look at the leaders of this club, about 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of the smart money’s total asset base, and by monitoring their top equity investments, we have deciphered a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see all of our picks from August).
Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. There are plenty of reasons for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).
With these “truths” under our belt, it’s important to take a look at the key action encompassing Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK).
Hedge fund activity in Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK)
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.
According to our comprehensive database, Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, holds the largest position in Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK). Arrowstreet Capital has a $146.4 million position in the stock, comprising 1.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $36.2 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish include Francis Chou’s Chou Associates Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Michael Hintze’s CQS Cayman LP.
Judging by the fact that Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) has experienced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely last quarter. Intriguingly, Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management sold off the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we watch, valued at close to $15.4 million in stock.. Steven Cohen’s fund, SAC Capital Advisors, also said goodbye to its stock, about $6.6 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
What have insiders been doing with Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK). These stocks are JDS Uniphase Corp (NASDAQ:JDSU), Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS), Ericsson (ADR) (NASDAQ:ERIC), Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), and Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI). This group of stocks belong to the communication equipment industry and their market caps are closest to NOK’s market cap.
