PacWest Bancorp (PACW): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

As aggregate interest increased, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Arrowstreet Capital, led by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, initiated the largest position in PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW). Arrowstreet Capital had $1.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also made a $0.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Mike Vranos’ Ellington, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW) but similarly valued. These stocks are Burlington Stores Inc (NYSE:BURL), Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ:NDSN), Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV), and Banco Bradesco SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBD). This group of stocks’ market values match PACW’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $429 million. That figure was $259 million in PACW’s case. Burlington Stores Inc (NYSE:BURL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Banco Bradesco SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBD) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW) 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 BURL might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None