Is Ameris Bancorp (ABCB) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Judging by the fact that Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) has witnessed bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there were a few hedge funds that elected to cut their positions entirely in the third quarter. Interestingly, Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors dropped the largest position of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, worth about $1.6 million in stock, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0,6 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Primoris Services Corp (NASDAQ:PRIM), Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN), and Q2 Holdings Inc (NYSE:QTWO). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble ABCB’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $123 million, versus $78 million in ABCB’s case. Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Primoris Services Corp (NASDAQ:PRIM) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) 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 GTN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.