Is PBCT Stock A Buy or Sell?

Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the fourth quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves over the last 5 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT) based on that data.

Is PBCT stock a buy? People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT) has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest lately. People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT) was in 29 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of December. The all time high for this statistic is 25. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that PBCT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, we heard that billionaire Peter Thiel is backing this psychedelic-drug startup. So, we are taking a closer look at this space. We go through lists like the 10 best biotech stocks under $10 to identify the next stock with 10x upside potential. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. Keeping this in mind let’s take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT).

Do Hedge Funds Think PBCT Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of December, a total of 29 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 32% from the third quarter of 2020. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in PBCT over the last 22 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

More specifically, AQR Capital Management was the largest shareholder of People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT), with a stake worth $51.3 million reported as of the end of December. Trailing AQR Capital Management was Arrowstreet Capital, which amassed a stake valued at $19.8 million. Millennium Management, D E Shaw, and Renaissance Technologies were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Hourglass Capital allocated the biggest weight to People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT), around 1.16% of its 13F portfolio. Neo Ivy Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.46 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to PBCT.

As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, initiated the biggest position in People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT). Arrowstreet Capital had $19.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $4.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ryan Tolkin (CIO)’s Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners, and Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT) but similarly valued. These stocks are Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR), Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:IART), Eastgroup Properties Inc (NYSE:EGP), Yamana Gold Inc. (NYSE:AUY), First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FR), Texas Roadhouse Inc (NASDAQ:TXRH), and MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to PBCT’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 21.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $587 million. That figure was $123 million in PBCT’s case. MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:IART) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for PBCT is 82.1. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 12.2% in 2021 through April 12th and still beat the market by 1.5 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on PBCT as the stock returned 42.5% since the end of Q4 (through 4/12) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.