How First Citizens BancShares Inc. (FCNCA) Stacks Up Against Its Peers

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Hedge fund interest in First Citizens BancShares Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) shares was flat at the end of last quarter, with 11 hedge fund holding at the end of September. This is usually a negative indicator. At the end of this article we will also compare FCNCA to other stocks including Telecom Argentina S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TEO), Webster Financial Corporation (NYSE:WBS), and Tallgrass Energy Partners LP(NYSE:TEP) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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What does the smart money think about First Citizens BancShares Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 11 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, unchanged from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 12 hedge funds with a bullish position in FCNCA at the beginning of this year. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates has the number one position in First Citizens BancShares Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA), worth close to $61 million. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Joe Huber of Huber Capital Management, with a $43.1 million position; 1.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish encompass Paul J. Isaac’s Arbiter Partners Capital Management, Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management and Matthew Lindenbaum’s Basswood Capital. We should note that Arbiter Partners Capital Management is among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.