NEW YORK, March 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Capital IQ, a leading provider of multi-asset class research data and analytics, today released a study of 4th quarter 2013 13F filings by pure play hedge funds in the U.S. which indicates that Telecoms and Healthcare were the sectors' major buys. In fact, Telecoms saw $2.9 billion worth of buys and Healthcare $2.8 billion.

S&P Capital IQ performs its hedge fund analysis quarterly in order to help investors understand what the most prominent U.S.-based hedge funds are buying, holding and selling. "Our firm develops its analysis through an examination of SEC filings accessed via proprietary Excel based models. In turn, clients can use these models to better spot global trends in various asset categories and see what some of the largest investors are targeting," said Tony Elyahou, Senior Director, S&P Capital IQ.

"Looking at recent filings as well as S&P Capital IQ's Holding Aggregator and Investor Profile Reports, available on the S&P Capital IQ platform, aggregate holdings of the ten top 10 pure play hedge funds - as determined by their total equity assets from 13F filings - shows Telecoms and Healthcare as the major buys," said Pavle Sabic, Credit Market Development, S&P Capital IQ. "It's interesting to note that Healthcare, the top sell sector last quarter, is now the second top buy."

Other findings in S&P Capital IQ's study include:

• Extended Stay America Inc. saw 6 hedge funds buy-into this IPO, making it the largest overall new position (in terms of number of hedge fund buys and dollars invested) with over $1.47 billion invested.
• Vodafone, Apple and Facebook have the top 3 spots in the Top 10 Increases in Existing Position, with $1.1, $1.1 and $1 billion respectively.
• Netflix, Comcast and eBay were the top 3 overall sells among these hedge funds, with over $2.6 billion sold off in total.
• Search engine companies Yahoo! and Google also saw sell offs of $627 million and $579 million respectively.  Another notable internet company, Twitter, still hasn't made the Top 100 positions for the top 10 hedge funds since its IPO last November.

S&P Capital IQ is an industry leader in collecting and standardizing global financial statement filings. Investment filings such as 13Fs provide crucial information about where institutional money has been moving.  In addition to collecting this public information and data, S&P Capital IQ creates unique and proprietary templates and workflow solutions to help users make more informed decisions.

To obtain a copy of S&P Capital IQ's hedge fund study or to learn more about the S&P Capital IQ platform, email info@capitaliq.com. A video of Pavle Sabic discussing the report is available at: http://youtu.be/LodqeqDoZ-4.

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.

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SOURCE S&P Capital IQ