Is BofI Holding, Inc. (BOFI) A Good Stock To Buy?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group established the biggest position in BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:BOFI). Alyeska Investment Group had $6.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Gilchrist Berg’s Water Street Capital also initiated a $4.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BOFI positions are John Osterweis’ Osterweis Capital Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:BOFI) but similarly valued. These stocks are NBT Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:NBTB), Renasant Corp. (NASDAQ:RNST), First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK), and Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (NYSE:RH). This group of stocks’ market valuations match BOFI’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $123 million. That figure was $116 million in BOFI’s case. Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (NYSE:RH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand NBT Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:NBTB) is the least popular one with only four investors holding long positions. BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:BOFI) 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 Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (NYSE:RH) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none