Is Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB) a good equity to bet on right now? We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks among hedge fund investors have historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk attributes. It’s not surprising given that hedge funds have access to better information and more resources to find the latest market-moving information.
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the third quarter. Overall, the hedge fund sentiment was unchanged and the stock was included in the equity portfolios of 27 funds tracked by Insider Monkey at the end of June. However, the level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Aqua America Inc (NYSE:WTR), Packaging Corp Of America (NYSE:PKG), and Leucadia National Corp. (NYSE:LUK) to gather more data points.
Follow Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB)
Follow Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB)
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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Now, we’re going to take a look at the recent action regarding Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB).
What have hedge funds been doing with Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB)?
As mentioned earlier, 27 funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies at the end of September, unchanged over the quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Select Equity Group, managed by Robert Joseph Caruso, holds the biggest position in Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp (NYSE:WAB). Select Equity Group has a $200.4 million position in the stock, comprising 1.7% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund is Mark Massey’s AltaRock Partners, with a $68.6 million position; 10.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions contain Lee Hicks and Jan Koerner’s Park Presidio Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Ferdinand Groos’s Cryder Capital.
