People watch stocks for different reasons -- they're waiting for a dip in price, watching for a specific catalyst, gathering all the news and information that might affect stocks they already own, or considering a sell. Regardless of their motivation, we can better understand market sentiment by seeing who's watching what. With the Fool's free My Watchlist service, we have tens of thousands of people telling us the businesses that have, for whatever reason, piqued their interest.
With this data we have come up with a new metric, watch interest, to inform investors what stocks their peers keep tabs on in each industry. In the case of the wireless telecom industry, watch interest is the percentage of people keeping an eye on wireless telecom stocks in general who are specifically watching each company. By looking at what stocks people are most interested in an industry, you can get ahead of the curve by finding hot stocks that you might have otherwise overlooked.
The most-watched wireless telecom stock is ...
Looking at the aggregate data, we see that Vodafone Group (Nasdaq: VOD ) is above the rest in terms of watch interest and for good reason. As CAPS player Sparkynet wrote last month:
Worlds largest (by revenue) mobile telecommunications company.
P/E 10.36
P/B .93
Growth estimates not great but I think because it's mobile, it will be higher than estimated. Growth through acquisition. Slow and steady.
They own over 40% of Verizon Wireless. Expecting huge dividend payment soon.
They have presence in every continent except Antarctica.
They've exited China and concentrating on Asia, Eastern Europe, India.
Average target prices approximately 25% above current price.
With it's HQ in Europe, will probably wait until debt issues more certain until taking a position.
Here are the rest of the 15 most-watched companies in the industry with their watch interest along with the stocks' CAPS rating to show the sentiment of our investing community.
|
|
Company
|
Market Cap (in millions)
|
CAPS Rating (out of 5)
|
Watch Interest
|
|
1
|
Vodafone Group
|
$84,414
|
*****
|
32.3%
|
|
2
|
Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S )
|
$11,129
|
**
|
24.1%
|
|
3
|
American Tower (NYSE: AMT )
|
$19,780
|
***
|
17.1%
|
|
4
|
Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR )
|
$447
|
**
|
6.2%
|
|
5
|
MetroPCS Communications (NYSE: PCS )
|
$3,450
|
****
|
3.5%
|
|
6
|
Partner Communications (Nasdaq: PTNR )
|
$2,003
|
*****
|
3.3%
|
|
7
|
Crown Castle International (NYSE: CCI )
|
$11,685
|
**
|
1.7%
|
|
8
|
VimpelCom (NYSE: VIP )
|
$19,024
|
****
|
1.6%
|
|
9
|
Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri (NYSE: TKC )
|
$10,613
|
****
|
1.5%
|
|
10
|
Leap Wireless International (Nasdaq: LEAP )
|
$508
|
**
|
1.3%
|
|
11
|
FiberTower
|
$44
|
**
|
1.3%
|
|
12
|
SBA Communications (Nasdaq: SBAC )
|
$3,967
|
*
|
1.0%
|
|
13
|
Mobile Telesystems (NYSE: MBT )
|
$17,433
|
*****
|
0.9%
|
|
14
|
USA Mobility (Nasdaq: USMO )
|
$340
|
**
|
0.8%
|
|
15
|
NTELOS (Nasdaq: NTLS )
|
$716
|
*****
|
0.6%
|
Sources: Motley Fool, Motley Fool CAPS.
Whether you're keeping an eye on the industry stalwarts like Vodafone or are watching an up-and-comer like USA Mobility, it pays to watch. We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service. Click here to start now.
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