Top 5 Stock Picks of John Bader’s Halcyon Asset Management

3. Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW)

Halcyon Asset Management’s Stake Value: $32.39 million

Percentage of Halcyon Asset Management’s 13F Portfolio: 5.23%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 75

Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) is an insurance brokerage and advisory company based in London, United Kingdom.

Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company’s (NASDAQ:WLTW) coverage was initiated by Jefferies analyst Yaron Kinar on November 18. Yaron Kinar gave the company shares a Hold rating with a price target of $258.

Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) was mentioned by Vltava Fund in their third-quarter investor letter. Here is what it said:

“The second position is much larger and was thrown into our hands by an unexpected turn of events. It is the stock of Willis Towers Watson. This is a British company with roots dating back to 1828. WLTW is the third-largest insurance broker in the world. This is a sector with which we are very familiar, as some time ago we held in our portfolio shares of its slightly larger competitor AON.

It was AON in fact that announced last spring it had agreed to merge with WLTW. In the merger, WLTW shareholders would have received AON shares. As is usually the case with such announcements, investors stepped in to conduct what is known as merger arbitrage. In this particular case, they bought WLTW shares and sold short AON shares in order to profit from the fact that the prices of the two stocks did not yet fully reflect the exchange ratio in the merger. Moreover, merger arbitrage commonly makes extensive use of leverage in order to increase profits…” (Click here to see the full text)