How First Citizens BancShares Inc. (FCNCA) Stacks Up Against Its Peers

We view hedge fund activity in the stock unfavorable, but in this case there was only a single hedge fund selling its entire position: Highbridge Capital Management. One hedge fund selling its entire position doesn’t always imply a bearish intent. Theoretically a hedge fund may decide to sell a promising position in order to invest the proceeds in a more promising idea. However, we don’t think this is the case in this case because only one of the 800+ hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey identified as a viable investment and initiated a position in the stock (that fund was PEAK6 Capital Management).

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to First Citizens BancShares Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA). We will take a look at Telecom Argentina S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TEO), Webster Financial Corporation (NYSE:WBS), Tallgrass Energy Partners LP(NYSE:TEP), and Legg Mason, Inc. (NYSE:LM). This group of stocks’ market valuations match FCNCA’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $216 million. That figure was $141 million in FCNCA’s case. Legg Mason, Inc. (NYSE:LM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Tallgrass Energy Partners LP (NYSE:TEP) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. First Citizens BancShares Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) 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 LM might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None