Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Wintrust Financial Corp (WTFC)

Seeing as Wintrust Financial Corp (NASDAQ:WTFC) has weathered a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there were a few hedge funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely last quarter. Interestingly, Matthew Lindenbaum’s Basswood Capital sold off the biggest investment of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, totaling about $4.1 million in stock, and Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $3.4 million worth of shares.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Wintrust Financial Corp (NASDAQ:WTFC). These stocks are Healthcare Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCSG), Landstar System, Inc. (NASDAQ:LSTR), Swift Transportation Co (NYSE:SWFT), and Mentor Graphics Corp (NASDAQ:MENT). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to WTFC’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22 investors with long positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $297 million, versus $232 million in WTFC’s case. Mentor Graphics Corp (NASDAQ:MENT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Healthcare Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCSG) is the least popular one with only eight bullish hedge fund positions. Wintrust Financial Corp (NASDAQ:WTFC) 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 Mentor Graphics Corp (NASDAQ:MENT) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None