CVB Financial Corp. (CVBF): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Is CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF) a bargain? The smart money is turning less bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets dropped by 3 in recent months.

In the financial world, there are plenty of methods market participants can use to watch their holdings. A couple of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are a number of reasons for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if investors know what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a gander at the key action encompassing CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF).

How are hedge funds trading CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -27% from the first quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the biggest position in CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF). Citadel Investment Group has a $6.7 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $4.2 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies that are bullish include Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management.

Judging by the fact that CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of hedgies that elected to cut their full holdings heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management dropped the biggest stake of the 450+ funds we key on, valued at about $0.4 million in call options. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s fund, Two Sigma Advisors, also dropped its stock, about $0.4 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds heading into Q2.

How have insiders been trading CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF). These stocks are Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI), BBCN Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBCN), PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW), WestAmerica Bancorp. (NASDAQ:WABC), and Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL). All of these stocks are in the regional – pacific banks industry and their market caps are similar to CVBF’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by our time-tested strategies, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds