Should You Buy HomeStreet Inc (HMST)?

Since HomeStreet Inc (NASDAQ:HMST) has witnessed no change in sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we check if there are funds that decided to sell off their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Anton Schutz’s Mendon Capital Advisors cut the largest stake of all the investors tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $0.4 million in stock, and Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.4 million worth of shares.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as HomeStreet Inc (NASDAQ:HMST) but similarly valued. These stocks are Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (NASDAQ:SPNS), Silver Bay Realty Trust Corp (NYSE:SBY), Univest Corp. of PA (NASDAQ:UVSP), and Double Eagle Acqusition Corp (NASDAQ:EAGL). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to HMST’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $95 million. That figure was $16 million in HMST’s case. Double Eagle Acqusition Corp (NASDAQ:EAGL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Univest Corp. of PA (NASDAQ:UVSP) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. HomeStreet Inc (NASDAQ:HMST) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard EAGL might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none.