In the financial world, there are a multitude of gauges investors can use to watch Mr. Market. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can beat the market by a significant margin (see just how much).
Just as key, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to analyze the investments you’re interested in. As the old adage goes: there are many incentives for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this tactic if you understand where to look (learn more here).
Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to analyze the latest info for Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR).
Hedge fund activity in Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR)
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 43% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.
Now, particular hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Third Avenue Management, managed by Martin Whitman, established the biggest position in Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR). Third Avenue Management had 19.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also made a $15.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new CFR positions are Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, and Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital.
What have insiders been doing with Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR)?
Insider buying made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR). These stocks are Texas Capital Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:TCBI), UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF), Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB), BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF), and Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH). All of these stocks are in the regional – southwest banks industry and their market caps are closest to CFR’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Texas Capital Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:TCBI) | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) | 12 | 0 | 0 |
Using the results explained by the previously mentioned analyses, average investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR) is an important part of this process.
