Hedge Funds Are Selling CIT Group Inc. (CIT)

Seeing as CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT) has faced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few fund managers that decided to sell off their full holdings in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, George Soros’ Soros Fund Management dumped the biggest investment of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $38 million in call options, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund cut a $6.5 million call options position (while retaining the aforementioned $109.5 million long position). These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT). These stocks are Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR), Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE:SIG), BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA), and iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (ETF) (NASDAQ:IBB). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to CIT’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 27.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $796 million. That figure was $1.31 billion in CIT’s case. Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE:SIG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR) is the least popular one with only 22 bullish hedge fund positions. CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard SIG might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None