First Bancorp (FBP): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Should First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP) investors track the following data?

In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of methods market participants can use to analyze Mr. Market. Two of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Equally as necessary, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to analyze the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to discuss the latest info surrounding First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP).

How have hedgies been trading First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 25% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Howard Marks’s Oaktree Capital Management had the most valuable position in First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP), worth close to $358.8 million, comprising 7.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Tom Brown of Second Curve Capital, with a $8.1 million position; 2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers with similar optimism include Matthew Lindenbaum’s Basswood Capital, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

As industrywide interest increased, certain bigger names were breaking ground themselves. Oaktree Capital Management, managed by Howard Marks, assembled the most valuable position in First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP). Oaktree Capital Management had 358.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Tom Brown’s Second Curve Capital also made a $8.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new FBP positions are Matthew Lindenbaum’s Basswood Capital, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last six-month time period, First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP). These stocks are Grupo Financero Sntdr Mxco SAB de CV ADR (NYSE:BSMX), Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:GGAL), Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP), BBVA Banco Frances S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:BFR), and Banco Macro SA (ADR) (NYSE:BMA). All of these stocks are in the foreign regional banks industry and their market caps resemble FBP’s market cap.