How Do Hedge Funds Feel About BankUnited (BKU)?

Seeing as BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) has witnessed falling interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few hedge funds that elected to cut their full holdings in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management cut the largest stake of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth close to $15.3 million in stock. Doug Gordon, Jon Hilsabeck and Don Jabro’s fund, Shellback Capital, also cut its stock, about $12.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Tenet Healthcare Corp (NYSE:THC), Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ:BWLD), Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT), and Symetra Financial Corporation (NYSE:SYA). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to BKU’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 28.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $572 million. Tenet Healthcare Corp (NYSE:THC) is the most popular stock in this table, while Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ:BWLD) is the least popular one with only 21 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) is even less popular than BWLD and the hedge funds have amassed stakes with a total value of $347 million in the company. So it seems that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies covered in this article, but it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.