Beneficial Mutual Bancorp Inc (BNCL): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Now that we’ve mentioned the most bullish investors, let’s also take a look at some funds that sold off their entire stakes in the stock during the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich’s Scopia Capital sold off the biggest investment of all the investors watched by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $15.9 million in stock, and Neil Chriss’ Hutchin Hill Capital was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $9.3 million worth of shares.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Beneficial Mutual Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BNCL) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Penn National Gaming, Inc (NASDAQ:PENN), Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc (NASDAQ:PLKI), BancFirst Corporation (NASDAQ:BANF), and First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP). This group of stocks’ market values resemble BNCL’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $168 million. That figure was $119 million in BNCL’s case. Penn National Gaming, Inc (NASDAQ:PENN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand BancFirst Corporation (NASDAQ:BANF) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Beneficial Mutual Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BNCL) 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 PENN might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none