Should You Buy City National Corp (CYN)?

Hedge funds run by legendary names like Nelson Peltz and David Tepper make billions of dollars a year for themselves and their super-rich accredited investors (you’ve got to have a minimum of $1 million liquid to invest in a hedge fund) by spending enormous resources on analyzing and uncovering data about small-cap stocks that the big brokerage houses don’t follow. Small caps are where they can generate significant out-performance. That’s why we pay special attention to hedge fund activity in these stocks.

Hedge fund interest in City National Corp (NYSE:CYN) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. At the end of this article we will also compare CYN to other stocks, including Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:STWD), Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN), and Pinnacle Foods Inc (NYSE:PF) to get a better sense of its popularity.

In today’s marketplace there are dozens of signals market participants can use to evaluate publicly traded companies. A pair of the most under-the-radar signals are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can trounce the broader indices by a solid margin (see the details here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the fresh action surrounding City National Corp (NYSE:CYN).

What have hedge funds been doing with City National Corp (NYSE:CYN)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, unchanged from the second quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Robert Emil Zoellner’s Alpine Associates has the most valuable position in City National Corp (NYSE:CYN), worth close to $113.6 million, accounting for 4.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $72.5 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining professional money managers that are bullish encompass Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital, John Bader’s Halcyon Asset Management and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.