Is Pinnacle Financial Partners (PNFP) A Good Stock To Buy?

With general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Driehaus Capital established the most valuable position in Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP). Driehaus Capital had $3.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. AlphaOne Capital Partners also made a $2.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new PNFP investors: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) but similarly valued. These stocks are Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP), TCF Financial Corporation (NYSE:TCB), Kosmos Energy Ltd (NYSE:KOS), and Essent Group Ltd (NYSE:ESNT). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to PNFP’s market valuation.

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 $87 million. That figure was $22 million in PNFP’s case. TCF Financial Corporation (NYSE:TCB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) 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 TCB might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None