Is Bank Of The Ozarks Inc (OZRK) A Good Stock To Buy?

Because Bank Of The Ozarks Inc (NASDAQ:OZRK) has faced falling interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that elected to cut their positions entirely last quarter. Intriguingly, Sharif Siddiqui’s Alpenglow Capital dropped the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising about $4.2 million in stock. D. E. Shaw’s fund, D E Shaw, also cut its stock, about $3.6 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds last quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Bank Of The Ozarks Inc (NASDAQ:OZRK). These stocks are Dun & Bradstreet Corp (NYSE:DNB), LPL Financial Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LPLA), Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ:NDSN), and DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DST). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to OZRK’s market valuation.

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 $470 million. That figure was $129 million in OZRK’s case. DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DST) is the most popular stock in this table with 24 funds reporting long positions. On the other hand Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ:NDSN) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Bank Of The Ozarks Inc (NASDAQ:OZRK) is even less popular than NDSN. 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.