Hedge Funds Are Betting On Comcast Corporation (CMCSK)

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Is Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSK) a buy?

In the eyes of many of your peers, hedge funds are assumed to be useless, old financial tools of an era lost to time. Although there are In excess of 8,000 hedge funds in operation in present day, this site looks at the moguls of this club, close to 525 funds. It is assumed that this group controls the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total assets, and by paying attention to their highest quality investments, we’ve found a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find the details here).

Equally as necessary, bullish insider trading activity is another way to analyze the financial markets. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of stimuli for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to study the newest info for Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSK).

What does the smart money think about Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSK)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 30 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 3% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA)According to our 13F database, First Eagle Investment Management, managed by Matt McLennan, holds the largest position in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSK). First Eagle Investment Management has a $967.9 million position in the stock, comprising 2.9% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Boykin Curry of Eagle Capital Management, with a $575.9 million position; 3.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Natixis Global Asset Management’s Harris Associates, Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management and Tom Russo’s Gardner Russo & Gardner.

As industrywide interest increased, particular hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. First Eagle Investment Management, managed by Matt McLennan, created the most outsized position in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSK). First Eagle Investment Management had 967.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management also made a $575.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management, Tom Russo’s Gardner Russo & Gardner, and Peter Rathjens Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSK)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSK) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSK). These stocks are Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA), Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA), Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC), Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB), and DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV). This group of stocks are in the catv systems industry and their market caps resemble CMCSK’s market cap.

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