Amazon and Netflix shares are down more than 11 percent over the past week through midday Monday. Both stocks fell more than 4 percent Monday.
"In this month's fund holdings update, Consumer Discretionary remained the most crowded sector, as large cap fund managers modestly raised their relative exposure to a five-month high," strategist Savita Subramanian wrote in a note to clients Thursday. "But the overweight is almost entirely driven by Amazon and Netflix, which together account for ~25% of the sector's market cap."
The strategist noted half the mutual funds it tracked owned Amazon, while 23 percent owned Netflix. The average relative position size in Amazon versus the index was 1.7 times, while Netflix's weighting was 2.0 times the benchmark.
Subramanian's team aggregated all the positions from U.S. large-cap equity mutual funds, using FactSet institutional ownership data. They then compared the weightings versus the relevant equity index benchmark to calculate its "crowded" stock analysis.
She has said it's more difficult for crowded stocks to move higher since everyone is already in the trade. Moreover, when sentiment shifts there may be more downside risk as investors flee for the exits at once, according to Subramanian.