Q4 2018 Hedge Fund Holdings: Top Stocks, New Buys & More

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Category: Business/Financial News

Published on Friday, 22 February 2019 07:38

Written by Janet Walker

Hedge funds didn't have a great 2018. They posted a loss of 5.7 percent, according to Bloomberg. With a bigger 2019 predicted stock picks from the twelve billionaire hold even greater interest. Check out the enclosed graphics.

Currently, there are over $3 trillion in hedge funds. To put that in perspective, only four countries, including the U.S., have a GDP higher than that. Furthermore, the median yearly earning for a hedge fund manager is now just under $350,000, but there are many who are billionaires.

So it makes sense that people pay attention to what hedge fund managers are buying, selling and holding. We want to replicate their success. Hedge funds' quarterly public disclosures, mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, give us a window into their recent activity.

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To help investors make informed decisions about where to put their money, WalletHub analyzed the filings of over 400 top hedge funds, identifying their biggest holdings, new positions, recent exits and more. You can check it all out below, including a breakdown of the names that billionaire stock pickers – from Warren Buffett to George Soros – prefer these days.

25 Most Popular Hedge Fund Stocks

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Top Billionaire Stock Picks

Hedge funds have become so popular that the billionaires behind them have celebrity status. Not only are they rich and famous, but they can move markets with just a few words. Investors worldwide follow their every move.

If you, too, are curious to see how billionaire investors such as Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn and Bill Ackman are making their money these days, just check out the following infographic. You'll find the top three holdings of 12 big-name billionaires, plus an overview of the stocks they've been buying and selling lately.

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Hedge Fund Holdings by Sector

Diversification is key to investing success. That's because spreading your chips around reduces risk and allows you to benefit from the broader market's long-term upward trend. That's why even the world's best investors hedge their bets by allocating capital to various segments of the economy.

The investments don't simply match the economy's makeup, however. And they're not always the same year to year, either. That's why we can learn a lot from the way in which hedge funds diversify their investments. With that in mind, here's a breakdown of where the money was during Q4 2018.

Methodology

This report is based on information from the latest public disclosures (Form 13F-HR for Q4 2018 and SC amendments from January 1 to February 14) for over 400 of the largest U.S. hedge funds. Data refer only to equities (i.e. not American Depository Receipts, Global Depository Receipts, Notes, Bonds or any other type of tradable securities).

To construct the "Most Popular Stocks" list, we looked at each of the over 400 funds' positions, added up the positions for the same stock and rank-ordered the stocks by their total holdings value.

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To calculate the "Sector Breakdown" of the positions held by the tracked hedge funds, we added up all the positions of the hedge funds from the same sector and then divided by the total amount of the hedge funds' positions.

Report Disclaimer: The information on this web page is provided as general and impersonalized investment information and is not a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Please obtain additional appropriate professional advice as needed in making any investment decisions. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

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Content and images provided by Wallet Hub and used with permission. Art Direction by Janet Walker. Certain graphics have been altered or omitted. Original article posted on Feb 22, 2019  by John S Kiernan, Senior Writer & Editor, Wallet Hub, and can be found here