Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (SUSQ)?

Is it smart to be bullish on Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ)?

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of metrics investors can use to monitor the equity markets. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can trounce the market by a significant amount (see just how much).

Equally as necessary, positive insider trading activity is another way to analyze the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a variety of stimuli for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if you know where to look (learn more here).

Furthermore, we’re going to discuss the latest info surrounding Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ).

How are hedge funds trading Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ)?

At Q2’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 27% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly.

According to our 13F database, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the largest position in Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ). Fisher Asset Management has a $58.1 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $32.8 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedgies with similar optimism include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management.

Consequently, certain bigger names were leading the bulls’ herd. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, initiated the most outsized position in Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ). Fisher Asset Management had 58.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also made a $32.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SUSQ investors: Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management.

How have insiders been trading Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ)?

Insider buying made by high-level executives is most useful when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last half-year time period, Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, 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 Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SUSQ). These stocks are Signature Bank (NASDAQ:SBNY), National Penn Bancshares (NASDAQ:NPBC), Valley National Bancorp (NYSE:VLY), Webster Financial Corporation (NYSE:WBS), and Fulton Financial Corp (NASDAQ:FULT). All of these stocks are in the regional – northeast banks industry and their market caps are closest to SUSQ’s market cap.