Is Lakeland Bancorp, Inc. (LBAI) A Good Stock to Buy?

Consequently, key money managers have jumped into Lakeland Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:LBAI) headfirst. Arrowstreet Capital, led by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, established the largest position in Lakeland Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:LBAI). Arrowstreet Capital had $0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Lakeland Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:LBAI) but similarly valued. These stocks are Newpark Resources Inc (NYSE:NR), HomeStreet Inc (NASDAQ:HMST), Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (NASDAQ:SPNS), and Silver Bay Realty Trust Corp (NYSE:SBY). This group of stocks’ market values match LBAI’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $46 million. That figure was $17 million in LBAI’s case. Silver Bay Realty Trust Corp (NYSE:SBY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (NASDAQ:SPNS) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Lakeland Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:LBAI) 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 SBY might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None