Should You Invest in Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL)?

We at Insider Monkey have gone over 700 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the government. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30th. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) based on that data.

Is Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) a buy, sell, or hold? Hedge funds are becoming more confident. The number of bullish hedge fund positions improved by two in recent months. At the end of this article, we will also compare Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) to other stocks including Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN), Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP), and Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ:MSCC) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Today there are a lot of indicators investors employ to value stocks. A duo of the most under-the-radar indicators are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see the details here).

Now, we’re going to take a look at the recent action encompassing Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL).

Hedge fund activity in Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL)

Heading into Q4, a total of 28 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish in this stock, an increase of 8% from the second quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, holds the biggest position in Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL). Millennium Management has a $60.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Balyasny Asset Management, led by Dmitry Balyasny, holding a $58.4 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital.

Now, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Alyeska Investment Group, managed by Anand Parekh, assembled the most outsized position in Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL). Alyeska Investment Group had $41.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Carlson Capital also made a $16.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management, Matthew Lindenbaum’s Basswood Capital, and Neil Chriss’ Hutchin Hill Capital.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) but similarly valued. These stocks are Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN), Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP), Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ:MSCC), and Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL). This group of stocks’ market valuations match Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL)’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 23 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $406 million, compared to $322 million in Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL)’s case. Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) is the most popular stock in this table, while Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) falls behind as the third most-popular. This could narrow down your research and may help you in determining the next stock to add to your portfolio.