Bank of America Corp (BAC): Why It’s the Most Popular Bank Among Hedge Funds Now

“The same should be true for Bank of America (20.6% of the Fund portfolio), which today has over $250 billion in shareholder’s equity – more than any other company in any industry in the United States. A focus on growing revenues while reducing operating costs (particularly litigation-related expenses) should result in rising profitability. With a Tier 1 capital ratio well above stringent regulatory requirements and “global excess liquidity sources” that would sustain operations for 40 months, Bank of America has regained the financial strength to support much higher earnings, yet its stock price also remains below book value.”

Despite that, there are some fears that the investment bank’s push into auto lending may be coming at a bad time, given the rising rate of uncollectable auto loans held by the banking industry, which rose to $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter, up by 39% over the past four years according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

With all of this in mind, we’re going to review the fresh trading action regarding Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC).

How have hedgies been trading Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC)?

Heading into 2016, a total of 113 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a rise of 5% from the end of the third quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially (or had already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Mr. Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management has the largest position in Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), worth close to $725.2 million, accounting for 1.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Boykin Curry of Eagle Capital Management, with a $532.6 million position; the fund has 2.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish consist of Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management, and Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC.

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Three Bays Capital, managed by Matthew Sidman, initiated the most outsized call position in Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC). Three Bays Capital had $260.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Keith Meister’s Corvex Capital also initiated a $158.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management and John Lykouretzos’ Hoplite Capital Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC). These stocks are The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), Visa Inc (NYSE:V), Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), and The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to BAC’s market cap.

Ticker	No of HFs with positions	Total Value of HF Positions (x1000)	Change in HF Position
DIS	51	3725016	3
V	101	9387910	-1
CVX	44	1478288	-1
HD	62	3718999	-7

As you can see these stocks had an average of 65 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $4.58 billion. That figure was $6.80 billion in BAC’s case. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) is the least popular one with only 44 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers and that it sports an attractive valuation, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.