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Discover Financial Services A Holding Of Latest 13F Filers

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At Holdings Channel, we have reviewed the latest batch of the 21 most recent 13F filings for the 09/30/2014 reporting period, and noticed that Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) was held by 9 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 DFS positions, for this latest batch of 13F filers:

Fund New Position? Change In Share Count Change In Market Value ($ in 1000's)
Corsair Capital Management L.P. Existing -4,490 -$86
Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Existing +11,000 +$899
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. Existing UNCH +$250
Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Existing +11,000 +$899
First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. Existing -3,650 -$134
Sandy Spring Bank Existing +340 +$24
BBK Capital Partners LLC Existing UNCH $UNCH
American National Bank NEW +152 +$10
Tudor Investment Corp ET AL NEW +5,100 +$328
Aggregate Change: +19,452 +$2,190

In terms of shares owned, we count 3 of the above funds having increased existing DFS positions from 06/30/2014 to 09/30/2014, with 2 having decreased their positions and 2 new positions.

Looking beyond these particular funds in this one batch of most recent filers, we tallied up the DFS share count in the aggregate among all of the funds which held DFS at the 09/30/2014 reporting period (out of the 2,392 we looked at in total). We then compared that number to the sum total of DFS 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 DFS. We found that between these two periods, funds increased their holdings by 4,244,373 shares in the aggregate, from 255,474,276 up to 259,718,649 for a share count increase of approximately 1.66%. The overall top three funds holding DFS on 09/30/2014 were:

Fund Shares of DFS Held
1. Vanguard Group Inc. 23,651,846
2. State Street Corp 20,589,100
3. Bank of New York Mellon Corp 10,007,797
4-10 Find out the full Top 10 Hedge Funds Holding DFS

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 Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS).


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