Should You Buy Flushing Financial Corporation (FFIC)?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Citadel Investment Group, led by Ken Griffin, established the most valuable position in Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC). Citadel Investment Group had $0.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also initiated a $0.5 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new FFIC position is Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC) but similarly valued. These stocks are Civitas Solutions Inc (NYSE:CIVI), MGP Ingredients Inc (NASDAQ:MGPI), Echo Global Logistics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECHO), and CommerceHub Inc (NASDAQ:CHUBA). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to FFIC’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $35 million. That figure was $43 million in FFIC’s case. CommerceHub Inc (NASDAQ:CHUBA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Civitas Solutions Inc (NYSE:CIVI) is the least popular one with only eight bullish hedge fund positions. Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC) 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 CHUBA might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None