Where Do Hedge Funds Stand On First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (FIBK)?

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 817 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30th, about a month before the elections. In this article we look at what those investors think of First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK).

First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistics is 15. Our calculations also showed that FIBK isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

In today’s marketplace there are a large number of gauges stock market investors use to analyze stocks. A duo of the most under-the-radar gauges are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can beat the S&P 500 by a healthy amount (see the details here).

At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost real estate prices. So, we recommended this real estate stock to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 15 best blue chip stocks to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a glance at the key hedge fund action surrounding First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK).

Do Hedge Funds Think FIBK Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2020, a total of 11 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -8% from the second quarter of 2020. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards FIBK over the last 21 quarters. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

The largest stake in First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK) was held by Fisher Asset Management, which reported holding $4 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Mendon Capital Advisors with a $2.4 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included JCSD Capital, Balyasny Asset Management, and Two Sigma Advisors. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position JCSD Capital allocated the biggest weight to First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK), around 2.66% of its 13F portfolio. Mendon Capital Advisors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 1.39 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FIBK.

Since First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK) has faced a decline in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedge funds that slashed their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, Renaissance Technologies dropped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $2 million in stock, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.3 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds last quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK). We will take a look at Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE:TCO), Mr. Cooper Group Inc. (NASDAQ:COOP), EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR), SpringWorks Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWTX), SciPlay Corporation (NASDAQ:SCPL), Outset Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:OM), and Sterling Bancorp (NYSE:STL). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to FIBK’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $437 million. That figure was $14 million in FIBK’s case. Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE:TCO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand SpringWorks Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWTX) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK) is even less popular than SWTX. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for FIBK is 26. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Hedge funds clearly dropped the ball on FIBK as the stock delivered strong returns, though hedge funds’ consensus picks still generated respectable returns. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10 percentage points. These stocks gained 32.9% in 2020 through December 8th and still beat the market by 16.2 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on FIBK as the stock returned 28.8% since Q3 (through December 8th) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.