Is Willis Group Holdings PLC (WSH) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Discovery Capital Management, managed by Rob Citrone, established the most valuable position in Willis Group Holdings PLC (NYSE:WSH). Discovery Capital Management had $28 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Robert Emil Zoellner’s Alpine Associates also made an $2.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Willis Group Holdings PLC (NYSE:WSH) but similarly valued. These stocks are News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA), AGL Resources Inc. (NYSE:GAS), Gildan Activewear Inc (USA) (NYSE:GIL), and Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to WSH’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 31 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $651 million, lower than the $2.34 billion in WSH’s case. Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Gildan Activewear Inc (USA) (NYSE:GIL) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Willis Group Holdings PLC (NYSE:WSH) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard CMA might be a better candidate to consider a long position.