After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from the more than 700 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of September 30. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC).
First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) investors should be aware of a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. At the end of this article we will also compare FRC to other stocks including UDR, Inc. (NYSE:UDR), Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD), and Cheniere Energy Partners LP (NYSEAMEX:CQP) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow First Republic Bank S F New (NYSE:FRC)
Follow First Republic Bank S F New (NYSE:FRC)
If you’d ask most market participants, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, outdated investment tools of the past. While there are over 8,000 funds in operation today, our experts look at the crème de la crème of this club, around 700 funds. These hedge fund managers watch over bulk of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by tracking their finest picks, Insider Monkey has discovered a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per annum for a decade in their back tests.
With all of this in mind, let’s analyze the latest action surrounding First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC).
How are hedge funds trading First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -29% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group had the largest position in First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC), worth close to $224.5 million, amounting to 2.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Fisher Asset Management, led by Ken Fisher, holding a $26.8 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital and Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners.
