Hedge Funds Are Betting On Independent Bank Corp (INDB)

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With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, established the most valuable position in Independent Bank Corp (NASDAQ:INDB). Fisher Asset Management had $2.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Peter Muller’s PDT Partners and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Independent Bank Corp (NASDAQ:INDB). These stocks are WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC), MedAssets, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDAS), Tumi Holdings Inc (NYSE:TUMI), and Penumbra Inc (NYSE:PEN). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble INDB’s market valuation.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
WSBC 7 16647 -2
MDAS 17 315102 1
TUMI 16 105739 2
PEN 13 91595 13

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $132 million, significantly above the $26 million in INDB’s case. MedAssets, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDAS) is the most popular stock in this table and WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Independent Bank Corp (NASDAQ:INDB) 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 MDAS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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