Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED)

Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED) was in 31 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. VMED has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest of late. There were 30 hedge funds in our database with VMED holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we look at the crème de la crème of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by watching their top investments, we have unearthed a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped 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 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (check out a sample of our picks).

Just as important, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the financial markets. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for a bullish insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the latest action encompassing Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED).

How are hedge funds trading Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED)?

At year’s end, a total of 31 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 3% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management had the most valuable position in Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED), worth close to $592 million, accounting for 9.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, with a $181 million position; the fund has 2.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital, Paul Ruddockáand Steve Heinz’s Lansdowne Partners and Brian J. Higgins’s King Street Capital.

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds have jumped into Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED) headfirst. Blue Ridge Capital, managed by John Griffin, assembled the biggest position in Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED). Blue Ridge Capital had 169 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global also initiated a $74 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are John Thaler’s JAT Capital Management, John Fichthorn’s Dialectic Capital Management, and George Soros’s Soros Fund Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s time-tested strategies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED) is an important part of this process.

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