Is Viacom, Inc. (VIAB) Worthy of Your Portfolio?

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With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. JANA Partners assembled the biggest position in Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB). JANA Partners had $105.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Buckley Ratchford’s Wingspan Investment Management also made a $58 million investment in the stock during the third quarter. The following funds were also among the new VIAB investors: James Dinan’s York Capital Management, Kenneth Mario Garschina’s Mason Capital Management, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB). We will take a look at Perrigo Company (NASDAQ:PRGO), KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY), Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN), and ServiceNow Inc (NYSE:NOW). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to VIAB’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
PRGO 30 1620457 2
KEY 42 727656 -4
WCN 29 986577 1
NOW 31 981619 0

As you can see these stocks had an average of 33 investors with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.08 billion. That figure was $1.07 billion in VIAB’s case. KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) is the most popular stock in this table, while Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) is the least popular one with only 29 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.

Disclosure: none

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