Hedge Funds Are Selling Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) (CHT)

Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CHT) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. CHT has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money lately. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with CHT holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

CAXTON ASSOCIATES LP

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of methods investors can use to monitor the equity markets. A couple of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as integral, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of stimuli for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at the recent action surrounding Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CHT).

What have hedge funds been doing with Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CHT)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the most valuable position in Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CHT). Renaissance Technologies has a $4.6 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Francis Chou of Chou Associates Management, with a $4.3 million position; 1.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP.

Judging by the fact that Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CHT) has faced bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there were a few hedgies that slashed their full holdings at the end of the year. Interestingly, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital cut the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds we monitor, totaling an estimated $1 million in stock. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CHT)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CHT) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CHT). These stocks are AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Windstream Corporation (NASDAQ:WIN), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL), and BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE). This group of stocks are the members of the telecom services – domestic industry and their market caps resemble CHT’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) 32 1 1
Windstream Corporation (NASDAQ:WIN) 9 4 0
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) 34 0 4
CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL) 19 1 5
BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE) 8 0 0

With the results shown by the aforementioned strategies, everyday investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CHT) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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