Has F.N.B. Corp (FNB) Become A Good Stock To Buy?

Now, some big names have jumped into F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB) headfirst. Balyasny Asset Management initiated the largest position in F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB). Balyasny Asset Management had $17.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ian Cumming and Joseph Steinberg’s Leucadia National also made a $6.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new FNB positions are Solomon Kumin’s Folger Hill Asset Management, Eric Halet and Davide Serra’s Algebris Investments, and Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB) but similarly valued. These stocks are Hudson Pacific Properties Inc (NYSE:HPP), PIMCO Dynamic Credit Income Fund (NYSE:PCI), Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (NYSE:RAX), and Proofpoint Inc (NASDAQ:PFPT). All of these stocks’ market caps match FNB’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $315 million. That figure was $169 million in FNB’s case. Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (NYSE:RAX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand PIMCO Dynamic Credit Income Fund (NYSE:PCI) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB) 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 RAX might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None