Stifel Financial Corp. (SF): Are Hedge Funds Right To Abandon This Stock?

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Now that we’ve mentioned the most bullish investors, let’s also take a look at some funds that cashed in their entire stakes in the stock during the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital cashed in the largest stake of the 700 funds studied by Insider Monkey, valued at about $23.1 million in stock, and Anton Schutz’s Mendon Capital Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $3.1 million worth of shares.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) but similarly valued. We will take a look at PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT), InterOil Corporation (USA) (NYSE:IOC), Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc (NYSE:KW), and TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ:TIVO). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to SF’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
PSMT 5 33843 -2
IOC 20 274150 -2
KW 11 388831 -5
TIVO 22 414787 -3

As you can see these stocks had an average of 15 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $278 million. That figure was $127 million in SF’s case. TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ:TIVO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) 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 TIVO might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None

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