Smart Money Beginning to Take Note of Renasant Corp. (RNST)

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. AlphaOne Capital Partners, managed by Paul Hondros, created the most valuable position in Renasant Corp. (NASDAQ:RNST). AlphaOne Capital Partners had $5.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Fisher Asset Management also made a $2.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new RNST investors: Mendon Capital Advisors and David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Renasant Corp. (NASDAQ:RNST) but similarly valued. We will take a look at BlackRock Credit All Inc Trust IV (NYSE:BTZ), Noah Holdings Limited (ADR) (NYSE:NOAH), PMC-Sierra Inc (NASDAQ:PMCS), and Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:APOG). This group of stocks’ market values match RNST’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 17 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $165 million. That figure was $48 million in RNST’s case. PMC-Sierra Inc (NASDAQ:PMCS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Noah Holdings Limited (ADR) (NYSE:NOAH) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Renasant Corp. (NASDAQ:RNST) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal despite the growth in holdings in the third quarter, and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard PMCS might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.