Synovus Financial Corp. (SNV): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Seeing as Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE:SNV) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the smart money, we can see that there is a sect of hedge funds who were dropping their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management dropped the largest position of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $11.6 million in stock, and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $6.1 million worth of shares. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 5 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE:SNV). We will take a look at Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK), ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD), Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc (NYSE:BFAM), and Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to SNV’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $201 million, below the $450 million figure in SNV’s case. Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK) is the most popular stock in this table, while Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE:SNV) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard OPK might be a better candidate to consider a long position.