Hedge Funds Are Betting On Warner Chilcott Plc (WCRX)

Is Warner Chilcott Plc (NASDAQ:WCRX) the right pick for your portfolio? The best stock pickers are turning bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets increased by 4 in recent months.

According to most shareholders, hedge funds are perceived as slow, outdated investment vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the elite of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by paying attention to their top picks, we have unearthed a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of reasons for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the key action surrounding Warner Chilcott Plc (NASDAQ:WCRX).

What does the smart money think about Warner Chilcott Plc (NASDAQ:WCRX)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 28 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from the previous quarter.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, established the most outsized position in Warner Chilcott Plc (NASDAQ:WCRX). AQR Capital Management had 70.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group also initiated a $56.9 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new WCRX investors: Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors.

What have insiders been doing with Warner Chilcott Plc (NASDAQ:WCRX)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest 180-day time period, Warner Chilcott Plc (NASDAQ:WCRX) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 13 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Warner Chilcott Plc (NASDAQ:WCRX). These stocks are Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited (ADR) (NYSE:RDY), Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TARO), Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CBST), United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ:UTHR), and Endo Health Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:ENDP). This group of stocks are in the drug manufacturers – other industry and their market caps match WCRX’s market cap.