[December 19, 2014]

New Report Looks at Quarterly Stock Holdings of Institutional Investors; Big Tech Companies Hold Top 3 Spots in Q3

Institutional investors and the managers they invest with are among the savviest investors in the world. Portfolio managers, supported by teams of researchers and traders, do exhaustive quantitative and qualitative research to identify investments intended to maximize returns at an acceptable level of risk. This protects multi-million and multi-billion dollar investment funds like pensions, foundations and endowments.

Historically, according to eVestment asset flow data, institutional investors get into and out of stocks 12 to 24 months before retail investors. eVestment took a look at the top stocks institutional investors around the world held in Q3, comparing that data to Q2 2014 and Q3 last year to highlight trends in institutional investor stock ownership.

Here's the top 20:

According to data reported to eVestment, three U.S. technology companies - Google, Apple and Microsoft - led the rankings of global institutional investor holdings in Q3 2014. Institutional investors boosted their Google holdings, pushing the company from the No. 3 spot in Q3 2013 to No. 1 in Q3 this year. New to the list in Q3 compared to Q2 is Comcast Corporation (ranked 13^th). Exxon Mobil, previously ranked 19^th, fell out of the top 20 this past quarter.

And big movers: Gilead Sciences, which was previously ranked No. 20 in Q2 2014, is now the 11^th most widely held stock by institutional investors; and Cisco Systems, which dropped from the No. 6 most-held stock in Q3 2013 to the No. 16 most-held stock in Q3 2014, the biggest year-over-year decrease of the 20 most-held stocks.

In addition to overall institutional investor holdings, the new eVestment Institutional Quarterly Ownership Report looks at ownership trends in a variety of major stock market universes, including US large cap value, US large cap growth and emerging markets.

For instance, among institutional investors interested in emerging markets stocks, the top 10 companies they owned were: 1) Samsung Group, 2) Taiwan Semiconductor (News - Alert) Manufacturing Company, 3) Tencent, 4) China Mobile, 5) Petrobras, 6) SK Hynix, 7) Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, 8) Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., 9) Itau Unibanco and 10) Tata Motors.

"Institutional investor impact on stocks is significant given the size of the portfolios they and their managers control," said eVestment CEO Jim Minnick. "And given that size and impact, it's interesting for investors at any level to see which stocks institutional investors are buying and holding, and which stocks might be falling out of favor with these investors."

The report is based on data reported to eVestment by institutional investment asset managers around the globe. To download the full report, please click here or use this link https://www.evestment.com/resources/research-reports/2014-research-reports/institutional-investment-holdings-report---q3-2014.

Important Notice: The information presented here is for information purposes only. This information is not investment advice nor is it a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any securities mentioned in this report. The information presented is provided "as-is" and all representations and warranties, express or implied (by common law, statute or otherwise) are hereby expressly disclaimed to the fullest extent of the law. Without limiting the foregoing, eVestment and its affiliates disclaim the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and make no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of this information. eVestment assumes no liability for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction taken based on this information.

About eVestment

eVestment provides a flexible suite of easy-to-use, cloud-based solutions to help the institutional investing community identify and capitalize on global investment trends, better select and monitor investment managers and more successfully enable asset managers to market their funds worldwide. eVestment's mission is to help make smart money smarter.

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