Hedge Funds Are Betting On TFS Financial Corporation (TFSL)

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers have jumped into TFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:TFSL) headfirst. AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, initiated the largest position in TFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:TFSL). AQR Capital Management had $0.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp also initiated an $0.5 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new TFSL position is Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as TFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:TFSL) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA (ADR) (NYSE:GOL), KAR Auction Services Inc (NYSE:KAR), and Panera Bread Co (NASDAQ:PNRA). All of these stocks’ market caps match TFSL’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $903 million, which is significantly higher than the $229 million in TFSL’s case. KAR Auction Services Inc (NYSE:KAR) is the most popular stock in this table, while Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA (ADR) (NYSE:GOL) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. TFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:TFSL) 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 KAR might be a better candidate to consider a long position.