The 800+ hedge funds and famous money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the second quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of June 30th. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund portfolios. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW).
Is Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) a safe stock to buy now? Hedge funds were taking a bullish view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets rose by 4 in recent months. Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) was in 70 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of June. The all time high for this statistic was previously 66. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that WLTW isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings). There were 66 hedge funds in our database with WLTW holdings at the end of March.
Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Hedge funds have more than $3.5 trillion in assets under management, so you can’t expect their entire portfolios to beat the market by large margins. Our research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 79 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). So you can still find a lot of gems by following hedge funds’ moves today.
Boykin Curry of Eagle Capital
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, the demand for helium is soaring and there is a helium supply shortage, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging helium stock. We go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. With all of this in mind let’s take a glance at the key hedge fund action regarding Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW).
Do Hedge Funds Think WLTW Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At Q2’s end, a total of 70 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 6% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 49 hedge funds with a bullish position in WLTW a year ago. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were adding to their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Farallon Capital was the largest shareholder of Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW), with a stake worth $799.2 million reported as of the end of June. Trailing Farallon Capital was Eagle Capital Management, which amassed a stake valued at $495.3 million. Baupost Group, Cantillon Capital Management, and Adage Capital Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Hunting Hill Global Capital allocated the biggest weight to Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW), around 19.73% of its 13F portfolio. Highside Global Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 8.3 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to WLTW.
As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers have jumped into Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) headfirst. Falcon Edge Capital, managed by Richard Gerson and Navroz D. Udwadia, established the most outsized position in Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW). Falcon Edge Capital had $76.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group also made a $74.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management, Michael A. Price and Amos Meron’s Empyrean Capital Partners, and Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW). These stocks are Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS), McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK), Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ:ODFL), ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAC), Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY), Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX), and AvalonBay Communities Inc (NYSE:AVB). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to WLTW’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZS | 38 | 1102517 | 4 |
| MCK | 51 | 2314668 | 0 |
| ODFL | 47 | 673076 | 7 |
| VIAC | 71 | 1872050 | -18 |
| OXY | 57 | 3620384 | 5 |
| EFX | 37 | 3075021 | 0 |
| AVB | 26 | 428148 | -14 |
| Average | 46.7 | 1869409 | -2.3 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 46.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1869 million. That figure was $5594 million in WLTW’s case. ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand AvalonBay Communities Inc (NYSE:AVB) is the least popular one with only 26 bullish hedge fund positions. Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for WLTW is 87.9. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 26.3% in 2021 through October 29th and still beat the market by 2.3 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on WLTW as the stock returned 5.7% since the end of Q2 (through 10/29) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
