Is Zions Bancorporation, National Association (ZION) A Good Stock To Buy?

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 third 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 6 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of Zions Bancorporation, National Association (NASDAQ:ZION) based on that data.

Is ZION a good stock to buy? Zions Bancorporation, National Association (NASDAQ:ZION) was in 28 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 45. ZION has seen an increase in hedge fund interest of late. There were 24 hedge funds in our database with ZION positions at the end of the second quarter. Our calculations also showed that ZION isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. With all of this in mind let’s check out the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Zions Bancorporation, National Association (NASDAQ:ZION).

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

At Q3’s end, a total of 28 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 24 hedge funds with a bullish position in ZION a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

More specifically, Millennium Management was the largest shareholder of Zions Bancorporation, National Association (NASDAQ:ZION), with a stake worth $37.1 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Millennium Management was AQR Capital Management, which amassed a stake valued at $31.6 million. D E Shaw, 59 North Capital, and Gillson Capital 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 59 North Capital allocated the biggest weight to Zions Bancorporation, National Association (NASDAQ:ZION), around 5.45% of its 13F portfolio. Kettle Hill Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 1.39 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ZION.

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers have jumped into Zions Bancorporation, National Association (NASDAQ:ZION) headfirst. Gillson Capital, managed by Daniel Johnson, created the most valuable position in Zions Bancorporation, National Association (NASDAQ:ZION). Gillson Capital had $15.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Andrew Kurita’s Kettle Hill Capital Management also initiated a $7.5 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ZION investors: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Joe DiMenna’s ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS, and Karim Abbadi and Edward McBride’s Centiva Capital.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Zions Bancorporation, National Association (NASDAQ:ZION) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Everest Re Group Ltd (NYSE:RE), NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG), Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE:BHC), TD SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX), Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK), Five Below Inc (NASDAQ:FIVE), and Cleveland-Cliffs Inc (NYSE:CLF). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble ZION’s market valuation.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 35.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1403 million. That figure was $182 million in ZION’s case. Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand TD SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX) is the least popular one with only 24 bullish hedge fund positions. Zions Bancorporation, National Association (NASDAQ:ZION) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ZION is 36. 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. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 31.1% in 2021 through December 9th and surpassed the market again by 5.1 percentage points. Unfortunately ZION wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); ZION investors were disappointed as the stock returned 2.4% since the end of September (through 12/9) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2021.

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