In this day and age, wireless devices have become the norm, and companies are in an aggressive race to control the airwave spectrum that provides video and other data services to customers.
Meet the contenders
The company favored to win the race for airwaves appears to be Verizon
Verizon hopes to buy radio spectrum from Cox Communications, a $315 million investment that could return 28 million potential customers throughout Boston, New Orleans, Jacksonville (FL), Phoenix, San Diego, and Las Vegas.
If the FCC approves the deal, it will help put Verizon well ahead of its competitors Sprint Nextel
Verizon is also spending $3.6 billion (pending FCC approval) to obtain airwaves from SpectrumCo, which houses major cable companies including Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House Networks.
Verizon's acquisition of the airwaves will be especially impacting to the industry now that AT&T has canceled its massive T-Mobile takeover. Had the deal gone through, AT&T would have overtaken Verizon as the industry leader.
Investing ideas
Wireless communication is expected to be a massive growth industry for years to come, but which companies are expected to gain the most from this trend?
For ideas, we collected data on institutional money flows, and identified seven wireless communication stocks that have seen significant institutional buying during the current quarter.
Big money managers have extensive resources to analyze investing ideas. So if they're buying a certain stock, it's worth paying close attention.
Do you agree with their bullish sentiment? Use this list as a starting point for your own analysis.
List sorted alphabetically by ticker. (Click here to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)
1. NTT DOCOMO
2. InterDigital
3. Leap Wireless International
4. SK Telecom Co.
5. Telephone & Data Systems
6. TIM Participacoes
7. VimpelCom
Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned above. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.
List compiled by Eben Esterhuizen, CFA. Kapitall's Eben Esterhuizen and Rebecca Lipman do not own any of the shares mentioned above. Institutional data sourced from Fidelity.