The (Fund) Stakes Are High for These 15 Stocks

When you're lying on an operating table or about to jump out of a plane with a group of skydivers, it's comforting to be surrounded by professionals. Does the same hold true for stock investing?

Large-scale institutional ownership of a company has pluses and minuses. It represents something of a seal of approval by professionals, but there's a downside, too: Institutions tend to buy stock in big hunks, which can send prices up in a hurry, but when the big boys sell, prices can sink just as fast.

Here's a list of the 15 large-cap stocks in which fund managers have gulped down more than 35% of the company's shares outstanding. Whether you see it as good or bad, it's worth digesting. Bon appetit. (Of course, this list doesn't include companies that have a small portion -- less than half, say -- of their stock in public hands, since most of the ownership is private.)

Institutionalized The 15 large-cap stocks where fund managers have taken the biggest stake.
Stock	Industry	Fund Ownership (%)	P/E Multiple	YTD Return
Safeway (SWY)	Grocery Stores	48%	21.9	26%
Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM)	Semiconductors	46	84.2	40
Teradyne (TER)	Testing Devices	39	29.8	-4
Sanmina (SANM)	Circuit Boards	39	71.7	86
United Health Group (UNH)	HMOs	38	24.1	54
Altera (ALTR)	Semiconductors	37	68.7	98.1
Clear Channel Communications (CCU)	Radio Stations	36	N/A	-14.6
Cardinal Health (CAH)	Medical Goods	35	28.6	53.5
Xilinx (XLNX)	Semiconductors	35	86.8	65.1
Guidant (GDT)	Medical Equipment	35	38.4	19.9
Waste Management (WMI)	Waste Management	35	11.7	8.7
Baker Hughes (BHI)	Oil/Gas Services	35	182	64.4
Omnicom Group (OMC)	Advertising	35	38.6	-15
Univision Communications (UVN)	Broadcast TV	35	135	21.6
Linear Technology (LLTC)	Semiconductors	35	62.8	54.4
S&P 500	N/A	N/A	26.9	-2.6
Source: Morningstar and Baseline.

If you're looking for the large-caps that are in the most funds, look at the usual suspects: General Electric, Cisco, Intel and Microsoft. This is something else: It's an eclectic gaggle of companies where a big percentage of the company's shares are owned by funds. They make computer chips, sell mayonnaise, change bedpans and even take out the trash. The only apparent theme is that fund managers haven't been shy about buying shares and all but three have beaten the market this year.

Make no mistake: This isn't presented as a buy list, even though funds have bought a ton of these companies.

"If institutions hold a ton of a company you own, it can be a risk. For all the talk about daytraders, institutions have short holding periods and tend to be the ones who react to research quickest and jump out first. They're the first ones out because, let's face it, Fidelity is watching the screens all day and you probably aren't," says Pat Dorsey, Morningstar's director of stock analysis.