Is Western Alliance Bancorp (WAL) a Smart Long-Term Buy?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “SMID Cap Growth Strategy” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. During the fourth quarter, the ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy outperformed its Russell 2500 Growth Index benchmark. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had gains across seven of the 10 sectors in which it was invested during the quarter (out of 11 sectors total), with the industrials sector the leading contributor, while the consumer discretionary and IT sectors were the primary detractors.  Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

ClearBridge Investments SMID Cap Growth Strategy, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) and discussed its stance on the firm. Founded in 1994, Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) is a Phoenix, Arizona-based bank holding company with a $9.3 billion market capitalization, and is currently spearheaded by its CEO, John Maguire. Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) delivered a -19.40% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -10.33%. The stock closed at $86.78 per share on March 28, 2022.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments SMID Cap Growth Strategy has to say about Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Another new addition was Western Alliance Bancorp (WAL), an Arizona-based community lender. WAL maintains our banking exposure as we have begun to exit SVB Financial due to capitalization. WAL has made a number of strategic niche acquisitions in the past decade and continues to demonstrate above-industry loan growth and good credit metrics.”

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Our calculations show that Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) was in 36 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 29 funds in the previous quarter. Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) delivered a -19.37% return in the past 3 months.

In February 2022, we published an article that includes Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) in the 5 Stocks to Buy According to Fred Cummings’ Elizabeth Park Capital. You can find more than 100 investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

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