Smart Money Is Losing Confidence In Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. (CTBI)

Because Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTBI) has faced a declination in the interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedge funds who sold off their entire stakes heading into Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Roger Ibbotson’s Zebra Capital Management dumped the largest position of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, valued at about $0.4 million in stock. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s fund, Arrowstreet Capital, also cut its stock, about $0.2 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTBI). These stocks are Hemisphere Media Group Inc (NASDAQ:HMTV), Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRI), TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI), and Workiva Inc (NYSE:WK). This group of stocks’ market caps is similar to Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTBI)’s market cap.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $89 million. That figure was only $4 million in Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTBI)’s case. TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) topped the list of stocks under consideration, in terms of the number of hedge fund holdings, whereas Workiva Inc (NYSE:WK) remained at the bottom, with four bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks, Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTBI) holds the same rank as that of Workiva Inc (NYSE:WK). Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case, more research is warranted.