Is Guaranty Bancorp (GBNK) A Good Stock To Buy?

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We view hedge fund activity in the stock unfavorable, but in this case there was only a single hedge fund selling its entire position: Mendon Capital Advisors. 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 700+ hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey identified as a viable investment and initiated a position in the stock (that fund was Millennium Management).

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Guaranty Bancorp (NASDAQ:GBNK) but similarly valued. These stocks are Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND), Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK), Myers Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MYE), and Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS). This group of stocks’ market valuations match GBNK’s market valuation.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
ASND 12 154777 1
OSTK 12 83600 0
MYE 9 68835 0
ACLS 10 57942 -2

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $91 million. That figure was $70 million in GBNK’s case. Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Myers Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MYE) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Guaranty Bancorp (NASDAQ:GBNK) 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 ASND might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None

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