Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the fourth quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves over the last 6 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) based on that data.
Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) has seen an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late. Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) was in 66 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic was previously 58. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. There were 58 hedge funds in our database with WLTW positions at the end of the fourth quarter. Our calculations also showed that WLTW isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).
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Seth Klarman of Baupost Group
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Do Hedge Funds Think WLTW Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 66 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 14% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 43 hedge funds with a bullish position in WLTW a year ago. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Farallon Capital held the most valuable stake in Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW), which was worth $715.1 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Baupost Group which amassed $572.2 million worth of shares. Eagle Capital Management, Cantillon Capital Management, and Adage Capital Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Hunting Hill Global Capital allocated the biggest weight to Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW), around 20.41% of its 13F portfolio. Ursa Fund Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 17.57 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to WLTW.
As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Baupost Group, managed by Seth Klarman, created the biggest position in Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW). Baupost Group had $572.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management also initiated a $457 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new WLTW investors: Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, Barry Lebovits and Joshua Kuntz’s Rivulet Capital, and Renaissance Technologies.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) but similarly valued. We will take a look at AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME), ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS), Otis Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:OTIS), Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO), Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDA), Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK), and Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS). All of these stocks’ market caps match WLTW’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AME | 32 | 909796 | 1 |
| ANSS | 33 | 1503462 | -7 |
| OTIS | 52 | 2750826 | -7 |
| VLO | 41 | 462502 | 3 |
| LBRDA | 23 | 774868 | -3 |
| LBRDK | 70 | 6857308 | -10 |
| DFS | 45 | 654294 | 2 |
| Average | 42.3 | 1987579 | -3 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 42.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1988 million. That figure was $5189 million in WLTW’s case. Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDA) is the least popular one with only 23 bullish hedge fund positions. Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for WLTW is 85.7. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 17.2% in 2021 through June 11th and still beat the market by 3.3 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on WLTW as the stock returned 12.8% since the end of Q1 (through 6/11) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
