It’s a good time to be a hedge fund.
The stocks most widely held by large speculative financial institutions are beating the S&P 500 by almost 4 percentage points this year, on pace to exceed last year’s outperformance, which also saw the group return more than the benchmark.
The equity strategy team at Goldman Sachs maintains a list of the stocks that matter most to hedge funds. Analyzing 821 funds that hold a total of $1.9 trillion in gross equity positions, they identify the stocks that appear the most frequently among top 10 holdings.
Those companies are then put into an index called the Goldman Hedge Fund VIP basket, which is rebalanced on a periodic basis, depending on the latest hedge fund 13-F filings.
Here’s a list of the 14 stocks in the index that show up most frequently in the top 10 of hedge fund portfolios, as of March 31:
14. Citigroup
Ticker: C
Subsector: Diversified banks
Total return year-to-date: 2%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 30
Source: Goldman Sachs
13. Reynolds American
Ticker: RAI
Subsector: Tobacco
Total return year-to-date: 18%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 31
Source: Goldman Sachs
12. Alibaba Group
Ticker: BABA
Subsector: Internet software & services
Total return year-to-date: 38%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 33
Source: Goldman Sachs
11. NXP Semiconductors
Ticker: NXPI
Subsector: Semiconductors
Total return year-to-date: 9%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 38
Source: Goldman Sachs
10. Yahoo!
Ticker: YHOO
Subsector: Internet software & services
Total return year-to-date: 28%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 39
Source: Goldman Sachs
9. Visa
Ticker: V
Subsector: Data processing & outsourced services
Total return year-to-date: 18%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 39
Source: Goldman Sachs
8. Microsoft
Ticker: MSFT
Subsector: Systems software
Total return year-to-date: 10%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 42
Source: Goldman Sachs
7. Bank of America
Ticker: BAC
Subsector: Diversified banks
Total return year-to-date: 3%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 44
Source: Goldman Sachs
6. Apple
Ticker: AAPL
Subsector: Technology hardware storage & peripherals
Total return year-to-date: 33%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 44
Source: Goldman Sachs
5. Charter Communications
Ticker: CHTR
Subsector: Cable & satellite
Total return year-to-date: 10%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 45
Source: Goldman Sachs
4. Time Warner
Ticker: TWX
Subsector: Movies & entertainment
Total return year-to-date: 1%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 47
Source: Goldman Sachs
3. Alphabet
Ticker: GOOGL
Subsector: Internet software & services
Total return year-to-date: 20%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 62
Source: Goldman Sachs
2. Amazon.com
Ticker: AMZN
Subsector: Internet & direct marketing retail
Total return year-to-date: 28%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 66
Source: Goldman Sachs
1. Facebook
Ticker: FB
Subsector: Internet software & services
Total return year-to-date: 28%
No. of funds with stock as top 10 holding: 79
Source: Goldman Sachs
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