Signature Bank (SBNY) is Harding Louvner’s Largest Quarterly Contributor

Harding Loevner, an investment management firm, published its “Global Small Companies Equity” fourth quarter 2020 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A net return of 17.68% was recorded by the fund in the fourth quarter of 2020, trailing its MSCI All Country World Small Cap benchmark that delivered a 23.79% return. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.

Harding Loevner, in their Q4 2020 investor letter, mentioned Signature Bank (NASDAQ: SBNY) and shared their insights on the company. Signature Bank is a US-based Commercial banking company that currently has a $13 billion market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, SBNY delivered a 67.12% return, impressively extending its 12-month gains to 214.16%. As of March 31, 2021, the stock closed at $226.10 per share.

Here is what Harding Loevner has to say about Signature Bank in their Q4 2020 investor letter:

“Despite the portfolio’s otherwise poor US stock selection, New York City-based Signature Bank was our largest quarterly contributor. The company reported strong third-quarter earnings on year-over-year deposit growth of 39%.

Our calculations show that Signature Bank (NASDAQ: SBNY) does not belong in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, Signature Bank was in 28 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 35 funds in the third quarter. SBNY delivered a decent 68.44% return in the past 3 months.