Is National Bank Holdings Corp (NBHC) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

As one would reasonably expect, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Mendon Capital Advisors, managed by Anton Schutz, established the most outsized position in National Bank Holdings Corp (NYSE:NBHC). Mendon Capital Advisors had $3.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also made a $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as National Bank Holdings Corp (NYSE:NBHC) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Kronos Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:KRO), Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG), Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO), and Revance Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RVNC). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to NBHC’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $40 million, which is lower than the $134 million in NBHC’s case. Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG) is the most popular stock in this table, while Kronos Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:KRO) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. National Bank Holdings Corp (NYSE:NBHC) 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 EIG might be a better candidate to consider a long position.