Do Hedge Funds Love Ameris Bancorp (ABCB)?

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds have jumped into Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) headfirst. Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp initiated the biggest position in Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB). Tudor Investment Corp had $0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY), Euronav NV Ordinary Shares (NYSE:EURN), La-Z-Boy Incorporated (NYSE:LZB), and Magnetek Inc(NASDAQ:MAG). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble ABCB’s market valuation.

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 $72 million. That figure was $77 million in ABCB’s case. La-Z-Boy Incorporated (NYSE:LZB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) 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 LZB might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None