Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (GBCI): Hedge Funds and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do? – CVB Financial Corp. (CVBF), Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL)

Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI) investors should be aware of a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

In the eyes of most investors, hedge funds are seen as worthless, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the leaders of this club, around 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by paying attention to their best stock picks, we have determined a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see all of our picks from August).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are plenty of reasons for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a glance at the key action encompassing Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI).

What have hedge funds been doing with Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the biggest position in Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI). Fisher Asset Management has a $34.3 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Dreman Value Management, managed by David Dreman, which held a $6.8 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish include Gregg J. Powers’s Private Capital Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Due to the fact that Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few funds that elected to cut their positions entirely last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management cut the largest investment of all the hedgies we track, totaling close to $0.5 million in stock. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI). These stocks are Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY), CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF), Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL), WestAmerica Bancorp. (NASDAQ:WABC), and Umpqua Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:UMPQ). This group of stocks are in the regional – pacific banks industry and their market caps match GBCI’s market cap.

With the returns shown by our research, everyday investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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