New York (HedgeCoVest.Com) – The first quarter was a choppy one for the stock market and hedge funds did manage to outperform the S&P 500 based on the performance of the Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index. The CSHFI has a habit of outperforming the overall market during choppy or bearish markets, so that should not come as a big surprise.

Given the choppiness of the market, we thought it might be worth a look to see what widely held stocks hedge funds were unloading during the first quarter. There were three that were unloaded to the tune of more than 50 million shares being unloaded and they wereBank of America (NYSE: BAC), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Twenty-First Century Fox (Nasdaq: FOXA).

BAC- hedge funds sold over 71 million shares during the first quarter as the stock dropped 13.71% during the quarter. It has bounced back of late, but it is still down 4.79% on the year.

FOXA- hedge funds unloaded 55 million shares during Q1 and the stock was down 11.5%. The stock has yet to rebound and is down 12.04% on the year now.

MSFT- funds dumped 51 million shares in the first quarter as the stock lost 11.85% during Q1. The stock has rallied since the end of the first quarter and is now up 2.24% YTD and up 15.99% QTD.

Rick Pendergraft
Research Analyst
HedgeCoVest