Hedge Funds Are Selling Foster Wheeler AG (FWLT)

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are dozens of indicators market participants can use to track their holdings. Some of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Just as crucial, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are many motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if you understand where to look (learn more here).

Thus, let’s study the latest info about Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT).

What have hedge funds been doing with Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -17% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

According to our 13F database, Platinum Asset Management, managed by Kerr Neilson, holds the most valuable position in Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT). Platinum Asset Management has a $211.9 million position in the stock, comprising 4% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, which held a $90.3 million position; the fund has 0.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Robert Pitts’s Steadfast Capital Management and David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP.

As Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT) has faced declining interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there was a specific group of money managers that slashed their full holdings last quarter. Intriguingly, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies we key on, worth close to $21.7 million in stock, and Timothy S. Peterson of Regiment Capital was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $17.1 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds last quarter.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT). These stocks are Primoris Services Corp (NASDAQ:PRIM), Granite Construction Inc. (NYSE:GVA), Empresas ICA SA (ADR) (NYSE:ICA), McDermott International (NYSE:MDR), and MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ). All of these stocks are in the heavy construction industry and their market caps are closest to FWLT’s market cap.

Using the returns shown by the previously mentioned analyses, regular investors must always keep one eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT) is no exception.

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