Caterpillar Held By Latest 13F Filers

At Holdings Channel, we have reviewed the latest batch of the 48 most recent 13F filings for the 09/30/2014 reporting period, and noticed that Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was held by 25 of these funds. When hedge fund managers appear to be thinking alike, we find it is a good idea to take a closer look.

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Before we proceed, it is important to point out that 13F filings do not tell the whole story, because these funds are only required to disclose their long positions with the SEC, but are not required to disclose their short positions. A fund making a bearish bet against a stock by shorting calls, for example, might also be long some amount of stock as they trade around their overall bearish position. This long component could show up in a 13F filing and everyone might assume the fund is bullish, but this tells only part of the story because the bearish/short side of the position is not seen.

Having given that caveat, we believe that looking at groups of 13F filings can be revealing, especially when comparing one holding period to another. Below, let's take a look at the change in CAT positions, for this latest batch of 13F filers:

In terms of shares owned, we count 11 of the above funds having increased existing CAT positions from 06/30/2014 to 09/30/2014, with 8 having decreased their positions and 1 new position. Worth noting is that Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC, included in this recent batch of 13F filers, exited CAT common stock as of 09/30/2014.

Looking beyond these particular funds in this one batch of most recent filers, we tallied up the CAT share count in the aggregate among all of the funds which held CAT at the 09/30/2014 reporting period (out of the 1,532 we looked at in total). We then compared that number to the sum total of CAT shares those same funds held back at the 06/30/2014 period, to see how the aggregate share count held by hedge funds has moved for CAT. We found that between these two periods, funds reduced their holdings by 791,531 shares in the aggregate, from 109,853,683 down to 109,062,152 for a share count decline of approximately -0.72%. The overall top three funds holding CAT on 09/30/2014 were:

We'll keep following the latest 13F filings by hedge fund managers and bring you interesting stories derived from a look at the aggregate information across groups of managers between filing periods. While looking at individual 13F filings can sometimes be misleading due to the long-only nature of the information, the sum total across groups of funds from one reporting period to another can be a lot more revealing and relevant, providing interesting stock ideas that merit further research, like Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT).