Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc. (SASR) Hedge Funds Are Snapping Up

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Millennium Management assembled the most valuable position in Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR). Millennium Management had $1.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $0.4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SASR investors: Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) but similarly valued. We will take a look at ORBCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:ORBC), Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT), Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET), and Leju Holdings Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:LEJU). This group of stocks’ market caps match SASR’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $40 million. That figure was $19 million in SASR’s case. ORBCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:ORBC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Leju Holdings Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:LEJU) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) 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 ORBC might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None