Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Vantiv Inc (VNTV) Anymore

Due to the fact that Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV) has witnessed falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely in the third quarter. Interestingly, Ben Gambill’s Tiger Eye Capital cut the biggest investment of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, worth about $28.2 million in stock. Jim Simons’ fund, Renaissance Technologies, also dropped its stock, about $25.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV) but similarly valued. These stocks are SCANA Corporation (NYSE:SCG), ServiceNow Inc (NYSE:NOW), AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME), and Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to VNTV’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 28 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $778 million. That figure was $600 million in VNTV’s case. Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand SCANA Corporation (NYSE:SCG) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Vantiv Inc (NYSE:VNTV) 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 RF might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None