Do Hedge Funds Love Home Bancshares Inc (HOMB)?

Because Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB) has faced declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of funds who were dropping their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, George Hall’s Clinton Group dumped the largest position of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $0.7 million in stock, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.7 million worth of shares.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB). These stocks are Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX), Tenneco Inc (NYSE:TEN), Con-way Inc (NYSE:CNW), and Teck Resources Ltd (USA) (NYSE:TCK). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to HOMB’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 21 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $243 million. That figure was just $83 million in HOMB’s case. Tenneco Inc (NYSE:TEN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Home Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HOMB) 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 TEN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.