EverBank Financial Corp (EVER): Hedge Funds and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER)Is EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER) an attractive stock to buy now? The best stock pickers are taking a bearish view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets went down by 3 lately.

At the moment, there are plenty of gauges shareholders can use to track publicly traded companies. Two of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the world of equities. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for a bullish insider to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if you understand where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a look at the recent action surrounding EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER).

Hedge fund activity in EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER)

At Q1’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -23% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.

Of the funds we track, Edward Gilhuly and Scott Stuart’s Sageview Capital had the biggest position in EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER), worth close to $198.8 million, comprising 63% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Steven B. Klinsky of New Mountain Capital, with a $134.6 million position; 79.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Tom Brown’s Second Curve Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Because EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER) has faced a declination in interest from the smart money, we can see that there exists a select few money managers who sold off their entire stakes in Q1. Interestingly, Drew Cupps’s Cupps Capital Management cut the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, totaling about $3.8 million in stock.. Charles Davidson’s fund, Wexford Capital, also cut its stock, about $3.2 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds in Q1.

How are insiders trading EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER). These stocks are IBERIABANK Corporation (NASDAQ:IBKC), BancorpSouth, Inc. (NYSE:BXS), Bank Of The Ozarks Inc (NASDAQ:OZRK), Trustmark Corp (NASDAQ:TRMK), and F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB). This group of stocks are in the regional – southeast banks industry and their market caps resemble EVER’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
IBERIABANK Corporation (NASDAQ:IBKC) 9 1 3
BancorpSouth, Inc. (NYSE:BXS) 12 1 2
Bank Of The Ozarks Inc (NASDAQ:OZRK) 5 5 9
Trustmark Corp (NASDAQ:TRMK) 6 0 3
F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB) 4 0 3

With the returns exhibited by our time-tested strategies, retail investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds