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Hedge Funds Have Never Been This Bullish On ViacomCBS Inc. (VIAC)
Published on June 14, 2021 at 3:07 pm by DEBASIS SAHA in Hedge Funds, News

In this article we will analyze whether ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAC) is a good investment right now by following the lead of some of the best investors in the world and piggybacking their ideas. There’s no better way to get these firms’ immense resources and analytical capabilities working for us than to follow their lead into their best ideas. While not all of these picks will be winners, our research shows that these picks historically outperformed the market by double digits annually.

Is ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAC) an excellent investment now? Prominent investors were getting more optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund positions increased by 45 lately. ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAC) was in 89 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic was previously 64. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that VIAC isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are a lot of formulas investors employ to evaluate stocks. A pair of the less known formulas are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a healthy amount (see the details here). Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 (through May 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 115 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website .

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At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, advertising technology one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this under-the-radar adtech stock that can deliver 10x gains. We go through lists like the 10 best hydrogen fuel cell stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Now let’s analyze the key hedge fund action surrounding ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAC).

Do Hedge Funds Think VIAC Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At first quarter’s end, a total of 89 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 102% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 54 hedge funds with a bullish position in VIAC a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Is VIAC A Good Stock To Buy?

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management has the most valuable position in ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAC), worth close to $259.2 million, accounting for 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, which holds a $254.6 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish contain Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management, George Soros’s Soros Fund Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Element Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAC), around 11.62% of its 13F portfolio. Voleon Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 10.14 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to VIAC.

As one would reasonably expect, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Renaissance Technologies, initiated the most valuable position in ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAC). Renaissance Technologies had $254.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. George Soros’s Soros Fund Management also made a $194.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new VIAC positions are David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Parag Vora’s HG Vora Capital Management.