Do Hedge Funds Love Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (SBCF)?

Since Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) has witnessed bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of money managers that slashed their positions entirely heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Porter Collins, Daniel Moses, and Vincent Daniel’s Seawolf Capital dumped the largest stake of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $2.9 million in stock, and Louis Navellier’s Navellier & Associates was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.3 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF). These stocks are Shoe Carnival, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCVL), UTi Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:UTIW), Star Gas Partners, L.P. (NYSE:SGU), and Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY). This group of stocks’ market values match SBCF’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 $96 million, compared to $59 million in SBCF’s case. UTi Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:UTIW) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Star Gas Partners, L.P. (NYSE:SGU) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) 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 UTIW might be a better candidate to consider looking into.