Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ)’s Results Affected by Union Strike

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Arrowstreet Capital assembled the largest position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ). Neal Shah’s Valtura Capital Partners also initiated a $148.4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new VZ investors: Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management, Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Capital, and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ). We will take a look at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), and Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to VZ’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 61 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $10430 million. That figure was $2805 million in VZ’s case. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) is the least popular one with only 32 bullish hedge fund positions. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard JPM might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None