Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (RCI): Hedge Funds and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

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Is Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI) a buy here? Money managers are getting less bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets dropped by 3 recently.

Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI)

According to most traders, hedge funds are seen as unimportant, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, we choose to focus on the masters of this group, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group controls the majority of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by watching their best investments, we have identified a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually 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 outpaced the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the financial markets. There are many reasons for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if piggybackers know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action surrounding Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI).

What have hedge funds been doing with Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI)?

At year’s end, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -30% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Spencer M. Waxman’s Shannon River Fund Management had the biggest position in Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI), worth close to $32.6 million, comprising 4.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors, with a $30.9 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedgies with similar optimism include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

Due to the fact that Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI) has faced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there were a few fund managers who were dropping their entire stakes heading into 2013. Intriguingly, Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates sold off the biggest position of all the hedgies we track, comprising about $11.5 million in stock.. Paul Tudor Jones’s fund, Tudor Investment Corp, also dumped its stock, about $6.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds heading into 2013.

How are insiders trading Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI). These stocks are Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (ADR) (NYSE:MBT), China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHU), TELUS Corporation (USA) (NYSE:TU), and Telefonica Brasil SA (ADR) (NYSE:VIV). This group of stocks are in the wireless communications industry and their market caps match RCI’s market cap.

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