Health Care Stocks Continue to Dominate Hedge Fund Buys for Second Straight Quarter in S&P Capital IQ® Quarterly Hedge Fund Tracker
Activist Target Baxter International Becomes Top Buy in Q2
PR Newswire
NEW YORK

NEW YORK, Aug. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Capital IQ®, a leading provider of multi-asset class research data and insights, today released its review of  Q2 2015 13F filings by pure play hedge funds.  The quarterly S&P Capital IQ Hedge Fund Tracker is an aggregate analysis of hedge fund stock ownership that spotlights hedge fund investments in specific stocks and sectors.   As a complement to the quarterly report, S&P Capital IQ also produced a Trends & Ideas research note which calls out ETFs that give investors exposure to hedge fund buying and selling trends.

The Q2 Hedge Fund Tracker analysis finds that the health care sector has continued to drive bulk of buying among the largest pure play hedge fund managers for the second straight quarter, with net buys of $7.2 billion in the quarter, up from $4.8 billion in Q1.  The largest single stock purchase during the quarter was Baxter International, Inc., which saw $1.9 billion in overall buying in Q2.  All of this came from a single fund, Third Point, which disclosed its activist stance on Baxter this August.  The single stock now accounts for 18% of Third Point's total stock portfolio.

"Between their growing use of activist investing strategies and the sheer volume of routine buying and selling activity they execute daily, the world's largest hedge funds have become a significant factor in the equity markets," said Pavle Sabic, Financial Risk Manager, S&P Capital IQ. "By regularly analyzing SEC filings in this manner, we are not only providing clues into investor sentiment, we are giving the marketplace an important reading on where market momentum may be headed."

Based on these trends among hedge fund managers, S&P Capital IQ also produced a Trends & Ideas research note which names specific ETFs that are weighted toward the stocks named in the 2015 Q2 Hedge Fund Tracker.  The research points out that a number of ETFs, including the Global X Guru ETF (GURU), the Global X Guru Activist ETF (ACTX) and the AlphaClone Alternative Alpha (ALFA), are accessible investment vehicles through which individual investors can participate in the hedge fund trends identified in the S&P Capital IQ 2015 Q2 Hedge Fund Tracker.

"For investors looking to tap into some of the same trends the world's largest hedge funds are helping to drive, many ETFs provide an accessible, liquid outlet," said Todd Rosenbluth, S&P Capital IQ Director of ETF Research.  "While it is not realistic that an individual investor would be able to mimic the strategy of a hedge fund, a number of ETFs do model themselves on hedge fund buying and selling patterns, giving investors a unique opportunity to follow the so-called 'smart money'."

Following is a summary of findings in the Q2 2015 Hedge Fund Tracker and the Trends & Ideas ETF research note:

  • Health Care Drives Hedge Fund Buying for 2nd Straight Quarter: The health care sector accounted for $7.2 billion in aggregate buying among the top 10 hedge funds this quarter, up from $4.8 billion in Q1.
  • Activist Interest in Baxter Playing a Role in Results: Baxter International, Inc. was the most purchased stock among hedge funds with a total of $1.9 billion initiated by a single fund, Third Point, which announced plans this month to seek two seats on the pharmaceutical company's board.
  • Infotech Sell-Off: The information technology sector saw the highest amount of selling among hedge funds with a total sell-off of $3.1 billion in Q2. This was the second consecutive quarter that information technology led hedge fund selling, with Baidu earning the distinction of most-sold single stock. A total of $1.3 billion in Baidu stock was sold in Q2.
  • Notable New Positions and Sell-Offs: Amazon and Rolls Royce saw notable new positions taken by large funds, with Viking and Tiger Global collectively taking a $1.3 billion stake in Amazon and ValueAct taking a $1.2 billion new position in Rolls Royce. Significant exits were made in Baidu, Apple, Micron Technology, Inc. during Q2.
  • ETFs that Mirror Top Hedge Fund Trends: A number of ETFs, such as those from Global X, AlphaClone and IndexIQ provide exposure to many of the trends noted in the Q2 Hedge Fund Tracker report.

S&P Capital IQ analyzes the latest quarterly 13F filings to determine the top ten largest hedge funds based on reported equity assets. Further analysis isolates the universe to pure-play hedge funds that focus on stock picks and hones that universe further to isolate the hedge funds that overweight their biggest bets by capping the number of stocks held at 100.  S&P Capital IQ performs this research quarterly in order to understand what the most prominent hedge funds are buying, holding and selling.  The firm develops the analysis through an examination of both industry filings as well as Excel-based holding models, allowing clients to quickly spot global trends in asset category and understand what some of the largest investors buying, selling and holding.

ABOUT S&P CAPITAL IQ
S&P Capital IQ, a part of McGraw Hill Financial (NYSE:MHFI), is a leading provider of multi-asset class and real time data, research and analytics to institutional investors, investment and commercial banks, investment advisors and wealth managers, corporations and universities around the world. S&P Capital IQ provides a broad suite of capabilities designed to help track performance, generate alpha, and identify new trading and investment ideas, and perform risk analysis and mitigation strategies. Through leading desktop solutions such as the S&P Capital IQ, Global Credit Portal and MarketScope Advisor desktops; enterprise solutions such as S&P Capital IQ Valuations; and research offerings, including Leveraged Commentary & Data, Global Markets Intelligence, and company and funds research, S&P Capital IQ sharpens financial intelligence into the wisdom today's investors need.  For more information, visit www.spcapitaliq.com.

DISCLAIMER

Form 13F Reports are required to be filed within 45 days of the end of a calendar quarter by institutional investment managers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  An institutional investment manager is an entity that  invests in, buys or sells securities for its own account, or a natural person or entity that exercises investment discretion over the account of any other natural person or entity. Only securities on the 13F list provided quarterly by the SEC (13F Securities) are required to be included in Form 13F Reports. Therefore, Form 13F Reports may not reflect the most current holdings of institutional investment managers because it is required that the 13F Report include only 13F Securities, is filed on a lag, and some funds may not meet the filing thresholds or other requirements. In addition, because the 13F Reports are as of the last date of the quarter, the 13F Report may not describe intra-quarter activity.

Copyright © 2015 by Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC. All rights reserved.

No content (including ratings, credit-related analyses and data, valuations, model, software or other application or output therefrom) or any part thereof (Content) may be modified, reverse engineered, reproduced or distributed in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC or its affiliates (collectively, S&P). The Content shall not be used for any unlawful or unauthorized purposes. S&P and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents (collectively S&P Parties) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability of the Content. S&P Parties are not responsible for any errors or omissions (negligent or otherwise), regardless of the cause, for the results obtained from the use of the Content, or for the security or maintenance of any data input by the user. The Content is provided on an "as is" basis. S&P PARTIES DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE, FREEDOM FROM BUGS, SOFTWARE ERRORS OR DEFECTS, THAT THE CONTENT'S FUNCTIONING WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THE CONTENT WILL OPERATE WITH ANY SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE CONFIGURATION.  In no event shall S&P Parties be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs or losses caused by negligence) in connection with any use of the Content even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Credit-related and other analyses, including ratings, and statements in the Content are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact. S&P's opinions, analyses and rating acknowledgment decisions (described below) are not recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions, and do not address the suitability of any security. S&P assumes no obligation to update the Content following publication in any form or format. The Content should not be relied on and is not a substitute for the skill, judgment and experience of the user, its management, employees, advisors and/or clients when making investment and other business decisions. S&P does not act as a fiduciary or an investment advisor except where registered as such.  While S&P has obtained information from sources it believes to be reliable, S&P does not perform an audit and undertakes no duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives.

To the extent that regulatory authorities allow a rating agency to acknowledge in one jurisdiction a rating issued in another jurisdiction for certain regulatory purposes, S&P reserves the right to assign, withdraw or suspend such acknowledgement at any time and in its sole discretion. S&P Parties disclaim any duty whatsoever arising out of the assignment, withdrawal or suspension of an acknowledgment as well as any liability for any damage alleged to have been suffered on account thereof.

S&P keeps certain activities of its business units separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain business units of S&P may have information that is not available to other S&P business units. S&P has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain non-public information received in connection with each analytical process.

S&P may receive compensation for its ratings and certain analyses, normally from issuers or underwriters of securities or from obligors. S&P reserves the right to disseminate its opinions and analyses. S&P's public ratings and analyses are made available on its Web sites, www.standardandpoors.com (free of charge), and www.ratingsdirect.com and www.globalcreditportal.com (subscription), and may be distributed through other means, including via S&P publications and third-party redistributors. Additional information about our ratings fees is available at www.standardandpoors.com/usratingsfees.

SOURCE S&P Capital IQ