Hedge Funds Are Selling Woodward Inc (WWD)

Woodward Inc (NASDAQ:WWD) was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. WWD investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with WWD positions at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are a multitude of methods shareholders can use to track their holdings. A pair of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to parse down the financial markets. There are a number of stimuli for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a look at the key action surrounding Woodward Inc (NASDAQ:WWD).

Hedge fund activity in Woodward Inc (NASDAQ:WWD)

At year’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -11% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the most valuable position in Woodward Inc (NASDAQ:WWD). Royce & Associates has a $180.7 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $11.4 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that are bullish include Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Seeing as Woodward Inc (NASDAQ:WWD) has experienced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there were a few funds that decided to sell off their full holdings in Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group cut the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we watch, valued at about $18.5 million in stock.. Paul Tudor Jones’s fund, Tudor Investment Corp, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.2 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds in Q4.

How are insiders trading Woodward Inc (NASDAQ:WWD)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Woodward Inc (NASDAQ:WWD) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Woodward Inc (NASDAQ:WWD). These stocks are General Cable Corporation (NYSE:BGC), REGAL-BELOIT CORPORATION (NYSE:RBC), A. O. Smith Corporation (NYSE:AOS), EnerSys (NYSE:ENS), and Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC). This group of stocks are the members of the industrial electrical equipment industry and their market caps resemble WWD’s market cap.

With the results shown by our research, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Woodward Inc (NASDAQ:WWD) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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