What Do Hedge Funds Think of Independent Bank Group Inc (IBTX)?

Because Independent Bank Group Inc (NASDAQ:IBTX) has experienced declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there was a specific group of fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely heading into Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates dropped the biggest investment of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $2.3 million in stock. Israel Englander’s fund, Millennium Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $1.7 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Independent Bank Group Inc (NASDAQ:IBTX) but similarly valued. These stocks are Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE:CPF), Orbotech Ltd. (NASDAQ:ORBK), Callaway Golf Co (NYSE:ELY), and PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to IBTX’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $102 million. That figure was $29 million in IBTX’s case. Callaway Golf Co (NYSE:ELY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Independent Bank Group Inc (NASDAQ:IBTX) 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 ELY might be a better candidate to consider a long position.