Hedge Funds Are Growing More Confident in M&T Bank Corporation (MTB)

With general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have jumped into M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE:MTB) headfirst. Basswood Capital, managed by Matthew Lindenbaum, established the largest position in M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE:MTB). Basswood Capital had $4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $2.9 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new MTB investors: Solomon Kumin’s Folger Hill Asset Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE:MTB) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB), Nielsen Hldg NV (NYSE:NLSN), Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NYSE:LVLT), and Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO). This group of stocks’ market values resemble MTB’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 32.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.84 billion. That figure was $786 million in MTB’s case. Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NYSE:LVLT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB) is the least popular one with only 22 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE:MTB) is only as popular as the least-popular stock, DB. 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