Do Hedge Funds Love Pinnacle Financial Partners (PNFP)?

Because Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) has experienced a bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who were dropping their full holdings heading into Q4. Intriguingly, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital dumped the largest investment of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling about $0.9 million in stock. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s fund, Marshall Wace LLP, also cut its stock, about $0.8 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP). These stocks are Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ:SLAB), CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF), Selective Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SIGI), and Matador Resources Co (NYSE:MTDR). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP)’s market value.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $33 million. That figure was $53 million in Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP)’s case. Selective Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SIGI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) 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, Selective Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SIGI) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.