BancorpSouth, Inc. (BXS): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It But Hedge Funds Love It

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of metrics investors can use to monitor Mr. Market. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can outpace the market by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as useful, positive insider trading activity is another way to look at the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of reasons for an upper level exec to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to analyze the recent info for BancorpSouth, Inc. (NYSE:BXS).

Hedge fund activity in BancorpSouth, Inc. (NYSE:BXS)

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 42% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management had the biggest position in BancorpSouth, Inc. (NYSE:BXS), worth close to $32.2 million, accounting for 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Dreman Value Management, managed by David Dreman, which held a $28.2 million position; the fund has 0.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that are bullish include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company.

As industrywide interest increased, particular hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, created the largest position in BancorpSouth, Inc. (NYSE:BXS). Pzena Investment Management had 32.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management also made a $28.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BXS positions are Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, and Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about BancorpSouth, Inc. (NYSE:BXS)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, BancorpSouth, Inc. (NYSE:BXS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to BancorpSouth, Inc. (NYSE:BXS). These stocks are EverBank Financial Corp (NYSE:EVER), F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB), Trustmark Corp (NASDAQ:TRMK), IBERIABANK Corporation (NASDAQ:IBKC), and Bank Of The Ozarks Inc (NASDAQ:OZRK). All of these stocks are in the regional – southeast banks industry and their market caps resemble BXS’s market cap.