Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About National Western Life Insurance Company (NWLI) Anymore

Since National Western Life Insurance Company (NASDAQ:NWLI) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of money managers that elected to cut their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Paul J. Isaac’s Arbiter Partners Capital Management sold off the largest investment of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $2.8 million in stock. Israel Englander’s fund, Millennium Management, also dropped its holding, about $0.6 million worth of NWLI shares. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to National Western Life Insurance Company (NASDAQ:NWLI). These stocks are First Commonwealth Financial (NYSE:FCF), Cray Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAY), Tutor Perini Corp (NYSE:TPC), and EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ:ELNK). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to NWLI’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 15 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $62 million. In the case of NWLI, that figure was a minor $18 million. EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ:ELNK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand First Commonwealth Financial (NYSE:FCF) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. National Western Life Insurance Company (NASDAQ:NWLI) 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 ELNK might be a better candidate to consider a long position.