Hedge Funds’ Updated Take On Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. (WDR)

As industry-wide interest jumped, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Hutchin Hill Capital, led by Neil Chriss, created the largest position in Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. (NYSE:WDR). Hutchin Hill Capital had $1.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $1.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new WDR investors: Joe DiMenna’s ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. (NYSE:WDR). These stocks are MRC Global Inc (NYSE:MRC), Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC), Spark Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ONCE), and World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE). This group of stocks’ market values resemble WDR’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $144 million. That figure was $119 million in WDR’s case. MRC Global Inc (NYSE:MRC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. (NYSE:WDR) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard MRC might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None