Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (PHI): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. PHI has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with PHI holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI)According to most shareholders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, old financial tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at present, we choose to focus on the masters of this club, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by watching their best picks, we have unearthed a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat 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 trumped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Just as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the financial markets. There are lots of incentives for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at the latest action regarding Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI).

What have hedge funds been doing with Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -13% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies had the largest position in Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI), worth close to $136.4 million, accounting for 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jean-Marie Eveillard of First Eagle Investment Management, with a $3.1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Jane Mendillo’s Harvard Management Co and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

Seeing as Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI) has faced declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies that decided to sell off their positions entirely heading into Q2. Interestingly, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management sold off the biggest investment of the 450+ funds we monitor, valued at close to $1.5 million in stock., and Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $1 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds heading into Q2.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time period, Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI) has seen 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 Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI). These stocks are BT Group plc (ADR) (NYSE:BT), Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN), KT Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:KT), France Telecom SA (ADR) (NYSE:FTE), and PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (ADR) (NYSE:TLK). This group of stocks are the members of the telecom services – foreign industry and their market caps are similar to PHI’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
BT Group plc (ADR) (NYSE:BT) 9 0 0
Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) 40 0 2
KT Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:KT) 12 0 0
France Telecom SA (ADR) (NYSE:FTE) 0 0
PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (ADR) (NYSE:TLK) 11 0 0

With the results exhibited by Insider Monkey’s research, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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