What Smart Money Thinks of First Bancorp (FBP)?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Ellington, led by Mike Vranos, created the most outsized position in First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP). Ellington had $0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Thomas Bailard’s Bailard Inc also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., and David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP) but similarly valued. These stocks are Installed Building Products Inc (NYSE:IBP), Amerisafe, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSF), Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT), and Genesco Inc. (NYSE:GCO). This group of stocks’ market values match FBP’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $79 million. That figure was $245 million in FBP’s case. Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT) is the most popular stock in this table, while Amerisafe, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSF) is the least popular one with only eight investors holding long positions. First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP) 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 Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none