Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About PrivateBancorp Inc (PVTB) Anymore

Due to the fact that PrivateBancorp Inc (NASDAQ:PVTB) has witnessed declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there was a specific group of hedge funds that decided to sell off their full holdings in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP sold off the largest position of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $2.2 million in stock. Mike Vranos’s fund, Ellington, also dropped its holding, valued at roughly $0.7 million. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as PrivateBancorp Inc (NASDAQ:PVTB) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Federated Investors Inc (NYSE:FII), Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDTI), SolarWinds Inc (NYSE:SWI), and Synaptics, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to PVTB’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $328 million. That figure was $234 million in PVTB’s case. Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDTI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Federated Investors Inc (NYSE:FII) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. PrivateBancorp Inc (NASDAQ:PVTB) is lagging behind in terms of both the number of long positions and the amount invested by hedge funds. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time and energy looking into stocks that hedge funds are crazy about. In this regard IDTI might be a better candidate to consider for a long position.