Is Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) A Good Stock To Buy?

Due to the fact that Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) has experienced falling interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few funds that elected to cut their full holdings heading into Q4. Interestingly, Alan Howard’s Brevan Howard said goodbye to the biggest stake of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $13.9 million in stock. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s fund, Adage Capital Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $10.1 million worth of FITB shares. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 13 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB). We will take a look at Edwards Lifesciences Corp (NYSE:EW), Devon Energy Corp (NYSE:DVN), Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), and Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble FITB’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 43 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.85 million. The amount invested by hedge funds in FITB was just $440 million. Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) is leading the pack, while Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) 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 EXPE might be a better candidate to consider a long position.