Hedge Funds Are Buying MB Financial, Inc. (MBFI)

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. PDT Partners created the biggest position in MB Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBFI). PDT Partners had $1.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management also initiated an $1.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new MBFI investors: Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as MB Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBFI) but similarly valued. These stocks are Kate Spade & Co (NYSE:KATE), Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE), Puma Biotechnology Inc (NYSE:PBYI), and United Natural Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNFI). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble MBFI’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 21 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $469 million. That figure was $35 million in MBFI’s case. Kate Spade & Co (NYSE:KATE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand United Natural Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNFI) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks, MB Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBFI) is even less popular than UNFI. 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.