Do Hedge Funds Love West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. (WST)?

Consequently, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Select Equity Group initiated the most valuable position in West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. (NYSE:WST). Select Equity Group had $31.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Highbridge Capital Management also made a $3.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are PEAK6 Capital Management, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. (NYSE:WST). These stocks are STERIS Corp (NYSE:STE), ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON), USG Corporation (NYSE:USG), and The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC). This group of stocks’ market caps match WST’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $580 million, significantly higher than the $140 million in WST’s case. ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) is the least popular one with only 21 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. (NYSE:WST) is even less popular than TTC. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.