Is Allied World Assurance Co Holdings, AG. (AWH) a Good Buy?

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As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have jumped into Allied World Assurance Co Holdings, AG. (NYSE:AWH) headfirst. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, created the most outsized position in Allied World Assurance Co Holdings, AG. (NYSE:AWH). Renaissance Technologies had $21 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital also made a $9.5 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, George Hall’s Clinton Group, and Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Allied World Assurance Co Holdings, AG. (NYSE:AWH). These stocks are Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC), Corrections Corp Of America (NYSE:CXW), MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX), and Spirit Airlines Incorporated (NASDAQ:SAVE). This group of stocks’ market values resemble AWH’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
VVC 10 70086 -3
CXW 15 113309 1
MKTX 15 99631 3
SAVE 39 468214 8

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $188 million. That figure was $259 million in AWH’s case. Spirit Airlines Incorporated (NASDAQ:SAVE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Allied World Assurance Co Holdings, AG. (NYSE:AWH) 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 SAVE might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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