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Gateway Investment Advisers bought more AT&T and Verizon shares, initiated a position in Occidental Petroleum and sold shares of GE in the second quarter.
Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty Images
A large company specializing in low volatility equity strategies recently made major changes to its equity investments.
Gateway Investment Advisers bought more
AT&T
(ticker: T) and
Verizon
Communications (VZ), initiated a position on
Western Oil
(OXY) and reduced its investment in
General Electrical (GE)
in the second trimester. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based adviser disclosed the transactions, among other things, in a form he filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In response to a request for comment, Gateway said, “These transactions were part of a routine rebalancing and do not reflect any forward-looking assessment of individual companies.”
Gateway manages $ 10.2 billion in assets. Its “low volatility strategy seeks to capture the majority of the returns associated with investing in the stock market, while exposing investors to less risk than other equity investments,” according to the Gateway website.
The advisor bought an additional 301,532 AT&T shares in the second quarter ended June with 1.9 million shares of the communications and media giant.
AT&T shares have not tracked the market year to date. Stocks closed the first half of 2021 flat and so far in July they have slipped 1.5%. the
S&P 500 index,
for comparison, jumped 14.4% in the first half and gained 0.7% so far in July.
AT&T announced a mega-deal in May to combine its media assets, including CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., with those of Discovery (DISCA) into a new third entity that will be split or split into shareholders. AT&T stock slipped after the announcement; investors were dismayed by an expected dividend cut, but insiders bought shares.
Gateway bought an additional 130,586 shares of Verizon to end the second quarter with 1.3 million shares of the communications giant. Verizon stock fell 4.6% in the first half of the year and has gained 0.8% so far in July.
Verizon’s first quarter report in May was lackluster. Last month, Verizon agreed to sell its stake in digital publisher Complex Networks. Earlier this year, Verizon agreed to sell most of its Yahoo and AOL assets.
Western stocks have climbed 80.6% in the first half of the year, and so far in July have fallen 17.0%.
The optimistic outlook for oil prices boosted Western stocks earlier in the year. Prices have increased, but remain volatile. We noted that an oil bull named Occidental as their favorite stock.
Gateway bought 316,873 Occidental shares in the second quarter; she did not have one at the end of March.
The advisor sold 238,313 GE shares to end the second quarter with 2.5 million shares of the conglomerate. Shares of GE rose 24.6% in the first half of the year and so far in July they have slipped 6.8%.
Barron reported earlier this month that GE’s stock appeared poised to see catalysts. Wall Street seems bullish on stocks. GE’s Larry Culp made our latest list of the best CEOs. We gave it credit for dealing with “structural problems that had been postponed for years” when the stock more than doubled in a year.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron column that covers the stock transactions of corporate executives and board members (called insiders), as well as major shareholders, politicians and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock transactions to the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory bodies.
Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.
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