Is ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (SFBS) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Since ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFBS) has witnessed a declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that elected to cut their positions entirely last quarter. Intriguingly, William Black’s Consector Capital sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $1.1 million in stock, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.6 million worth of shares.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFBS). We will take a look at Hersha Hospitality Trust (NYSE:HT), Union First Market Bankshares Corp. (NASDAQ:UBSH), Lendingtree Inc (NASDAQ:TREE), and Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to SFBS’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $93 million, compared to $34 million in SFBS’s case. Lendingtree Inc (NASDAQ:TREE) is the most popular stock in this table, while Union First Market Bankshares Corp. (NASDAQ:UBSH) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFBS) 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 TREE might be a better candidate to consider a long position.