Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH), The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB): Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Towers Watson & Co (NYSE:TW)

Is Towers Watson & Co (NYSE:TW) going to take off soon? Investors who are in the know are getting more optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund bets inched up by 2 in recent months.

At the moment, there are tons of indicators investors can use to analyze publicly traded companies. A pair of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a superb amount (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of incentives for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a peek at the key action regarding Towers Watson & Co (NYSE:TW).

Hedge fund activity in Towers Watson & Co (NYSE:TW)

Heading into 2013, a total of 15 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 15% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

Of the funds we track, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates had the biggest position in Towers Watson & Co (NYSE:TW), worth close to $118 million, comprising 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Ariel Investments, managed by John W. Rogers, which held a $38 million position; 3.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that are bullish include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Thomas Ellis and Todd Hammer’s North Run Capital.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. North Run Capital, managed by Thomas Ellis and Todd Hammer, established the most outsized position in Towers Watson & Co (NYSE:TW). North Run Capital had 33 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management also initiated a $17 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new TW investors: Alexander Roepers’s Atlantic Investment Management, Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp, and Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors.

What have insiders been doing with Towers Watson & Co (NYSE:TW)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is particularly usable when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, Towers Watson & Co (NYSE:TW) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Towers Watson & Co (NYSE:TW). These stocks are FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:FCN), Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH), The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE:CEB), Corrections Corp Of America (NYSE:CXW), and Genpact Limited (NYSE:G). This group of stocks are in the management services industry and their market caps are similar to TW’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, retail investors should always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Towers Watson & Co (NYSE:TW) applies perfectly to this mantra.