Insider Monkey finished processing more than 700 13F filings made by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of September 30. What do these smart investors think about BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE)?
BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE) was in 14 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. BCE investors should be aware of a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently. There were 19 hedge funds in our database with BCE holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare BCE to other stocks including Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO), and Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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To most shareholders, hedge funds are assumed to be underperforming, old financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are more than an 8000 funds trading at the moment, We choose to focus on the leaders of this club, around 700 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors shepherd most of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by tracking their finest investments, Insider Monkey has discovered numerous investment strategies that have historically outrun the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy exceeded the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per annum for a decade in their back tests.
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the latest action surrounding BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE).
Hedge fund activity in BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE)
Heading into Q4, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -26% from the second quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the number one position in BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE). AQR Capital Management has a $85.5 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Renaissance Technologies, led by Jim Simons, holding a $70.5 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers that hold long positions consist of Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates and Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings.
Seeing as BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE) has experienced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedge funds that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into Q4. Intriguingly, Ray Carroll’s Breton Hill Capital dropped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising about $6.6 million in stock, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $5.3 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 5 funds heading into Q4.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE). These stocks are Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO), Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU), and General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS). All of these stocks’ market caps match BCE’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| YUM | 65 | 5045676 | 6 |
| AVGO | 66 | 4396246 | -6 |
| PRU | 37 | 970845 | -2 |
| GIS | 30 | 497245 | 3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 49.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2,728 million. That figure was $247 million in BCE’s case. Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) is the least popular one with only 30 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE) is even less popular than GIS. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.
