At Insider Monkey we follow around 730 of the best-performing investors and even though many of them lost money in the last several months, the history teaches us that over the long-run they still manage to beat the market, which is why it can be profitable for us to imitate their activity. Of course, even the best money managers can sometimes get it wrong, but following some of their picks gives us a better chance to outperform the crowd than picking a random stock and this is where our research comes in.
PrivateBancorp Inc (NASDAQ:PVTB) was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. PVTB investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. There were 17 hedge funds in our database with PVTB holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare PVTB to other stocks, including Federated Investors Inc (NYSE:FII), Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDTI), and SolarWinds Inc (NYSE:SWI) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Privatebancorp Inc (NASDAQ:PVTB)
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Today there are several metrics market participants can use to evaluate stocks. A pair of the best metrics are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a superb amount (see the details here).
Keeping this in mind, let’s go over the latest action encompassing PrivateBancorp Inc (NASDAQ:PVTB).
What does the smart money think about PrivateBancorp Inc (NASDAQ:PVTB)?
Heading into Q4, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a drop of 12% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management has the biggest position in PrivateBancorp Inc (NASDAQ:PVTB), worth close to $55.7 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Columbus Circle Investors, led by Clifford Fox, holding a $49.6 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions encompass Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.
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.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FII | 12 | 272665 | -6 |
| IDTI | 36 | 520148 | -7 |
| SWI | 23 | 403604 | -4 |
| SYNA | 18 | 115596 | -4 |
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.
