Weight Watchers International, Inc. (WTW): Hedge Funds and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW) investors should be aware of a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately.

To the average investor, there are dozens of indicators investors can use to watch stocks. Two of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outpace the broader indices by a very impressive amount (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the stock market universe. There are many reasons for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the key action regarding Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW).

How are hedge funds trading Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -44% from the previous quarter.

Since Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW) has witnessed declining sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that slashed their positions entirely in Q1. It’s worth mentioning that Sanford J. Colen’s Apex Capital cut the largest position of the 450+ funds we watch, comprising an estimated $20.3 million in stock.. Jacob Gottlieb’s fund, Visium Asset Management, also sold off its stock, about $20 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 7 funds in Q1.

Insider trading activity in Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time frame, Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 2 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW). These stocks are Regis Corporation (NYSE:RGS), Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA), Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI), VCA Antech Inc (NASDAQ:WOOF), and Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc (NYSE:BFAM). All of these stocks are in the personal services industry and their market caps are similar to WTW’s market cap.

With the results shown by our research, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds