Hedge Funds Are Betting On ViewPoint Financial Group (VPFG)

Is ViewPoint Financial Group (NASDAQ:VPFG) the right investment to pursue these days? The best stock pickers are betting on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund bets rose by 1 in recent months.

In the eyes of most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the top tier of this club, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group controls the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their best equity investments, we have unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically beaten the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (explore the details and some picks here).

Equally as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of reasons for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if investors understand where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a gander at the recent action regarding ViewPoint Financial Group (NASDAQ:VPFG).

What does the smart money think about ViewPoint Financial Group (NASDAQ:VPFG)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 13% from the previous quarter.

Now, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Harvest Capital Strategies, managed by Joseph A. Jolson, initiated the biggest position in ViewPoint Financial Group (NASDAQ:VPFG). Harvest Capital Strategies had 1.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also initiated a $1.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new VPFG positions are Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management and J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about ViewPoint Financial Group (NASDAQ:VPFG)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, ViewPoint Financial Group (NASDAQ:VPFG) has experienced 7 unique insiders purchasing, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to ViewPoint Financial Group (NASDAQ:VPFG). These stocks are Main Street Capital Corporation (NYSE:MAIN), Solar Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:SLRC), Tile Shop Hldgs, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTS), Sabine Royalty Trust (NYSE:SBR), and Dorchester Minerals LP (NASDAQ:DMLP). All of these stocks are in the diversified investments industry and their market caps are similar to VPFG’s market cap.