Is Peoples Utah Bancorp (PUB) A Good Stock To Buy?

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Seeing as Peoples Utah Bancorp (NASDAQ:PUB) has experienced a declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedge funds that slashed their entire stakes in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Paul Magidson, Jonathan Cohen. And Ostrom Enders’ Castine Capital Management sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $1 million in stock. Dmitry Balyasny’s fund, Balyasny Asset Management, also dropped its stock, about $0.7 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Peoples Utah Bancorp (NASDAQ:PUB) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Permian Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE:PBT), NextPoint Residential Trust Inc (NYSE:NXRT), Legacy Reserves LP (NASDAQ:LGCY), and Applied Optoelectronics Inc (NASDAQ:AAOI). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to PUB’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
PBT 5 16026 -2
NXRT 7 36265 0
LGCY 4 9262 1
AAOI 20 78488 7

As you can see these stocks had an average of 9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $35 million. That figure was $11 million in PUB’s case. Applied Optoelectronics Inc (NASDAQ:AAOI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Legacy Reserves LP (NASDAQ:LGCY) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Peoples Utah Bancorp (NASDAQ:PUB) 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 AAOI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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