Hedge Funds Are Betting On Citizens, Inc. (CIA)

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Pleasant Lake Partners assembled the largest new position in Citizens, Inc. (NYSE:CIA), followed closely by Arrowstreet Capital. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Citizens, Inc. (NYSE:CIA) but similarly valued. We will take a look at FB Financial Corp(NYSE:FBK), Blucora Inc (NASDAQ:BCOR), Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO), and Lands’ End, Inc. (NASDAQ:LE). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble CIA’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $79 million. That figure was $20 million in CIA’s case. Blucora Inc (NASDAQ:BCOR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Lands’ End, Inc. (NASDAQ:LE) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Citizens, Inc. (NYSE:CIA) is even less popular than LE. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None